Lauren Stern

Columnist
From Philadelphia, PA

Smartphone newbie, trying to get as much work done with my newly embraced technology before it succumbs to hungry pets or a toddler that would love nothing more than to see if it floats.

Currently living in San Mateo, CA.

Lauren's latest articles, videos, reviews and more...

Reader reactionsIs it smart for HP to exclude the existing Palm line from webOS 2.0?

Webos As I mull over the new webOS devices that will be hitting the market in the coming months and what I hope to be a successful “re-launch” of webOS under the auspices of HP, I can’t help but feel slightly stung in the process. Being a webOS...

ExclusiveCommitment-Phobe’s Journey: To tag or not to tag?

Commitment-Phobe'S Journey In this technological age we live in, a picture is worth more than a thousand words. When I originally purchased and set up my Palm Pre Plus, I turned off all of the location services options. My initial persuasion was to save battery life,...

ExclusiveCommitment-Phobe's Journey: 'Tis the season apps

Commitment-Phobe'S Journey Now that my toddler is getting older and wiser, I have realized that last minute holiday planning and festivities are no longer going to cut it. So in the midst of enjoying our relaxing and cozy Thanksgiving, I was already brainstorming on fun and...

ExclusiveCommitment-Phobe's Journey: Entertainment on webOS

Commitment-Phobe'S Journey Over the last several months, I have learned that webOS is clearly an asset for organizing and simplifying business tasks and calendars. I have also found some fun games and guilty pleasure apps that I’ve discussed in previous columns. But now...

ExclusiveCommitment-Phobe's Journey: How will HP’s Slate 500 affect consumer reception of a webOS tablet?

Commitment-Phobe'S Journey It’s not a surprise that webOS-faithfuls were taken aback and even a little disappointed when HP recently released a tablet without webOS. Like many of us, I only want to see webOS fulfill its potential and perceive HP’s backing of a Windows 7...

ExclusiveCommitment-Phobe's Journey: Time zone challenges

Commitment-Phobe'S Journey Time zones. In theory, it’s a very basic concept and easy calculation, but in practice, it has become increasingly more difficult for me. What was first just my family moving has now become our close friends moving too as we constantly make new...

ExclusiveCommitment-Phobe's Journey: What is HP doing?

Commitment-Phobe'S Journey There is no question that I love my Palm Pre Plus and webOS, but I have to air a few grievances this week. While I was and am all for Hewlett-Packard’s knight-in-shining-armor acquisition of Palm, I am not sure I follow some of HP’s current...

ExclusiveCommitment-Phobe's Journey: NewsRoom for webOS

Commitment-Phobe'S Journey Finding myself with some down time this holiday weekend, I decided to peruse my often overlooked, but immensely handy On Sale app. As I mentioned in a previous column, On Sale is a free application that provides a running list of those apps on...

UpdatedCommitment-Phobe’s Journey: Angry Birds for WebOS

Commitment-Phobe'S Journey Downloading Angry Birds was my first priority after the recent webOS update and so far I haven’t been disappointed. I am clearly no gamer or expert of the sort, but I had to check out all the hype and even I can appreciate the addicting...

ExclusiveCommitment-Phobe’s Journey: Palm Profile

Commitment-Phobe'S Journey At first glance, the Palm Profile doesn’t seem like much, but it is certainly something that all Palm owners should be aware of and utilize. For your more immediate or day-to-day needs, having an active Palm Profile provides you with access to...

ExclusiveCommitment-Phobe’s Journey: How is webOS 1.4.5 treating you?

Commitment-Phobe'S Journey Slowly but surely, the webOS 1.4.5 update has been rolling out to the Palm Pres and Pixis on various networks. How is the new update treating you? Are you seeing any differences and are they positive? For me, I have only noticed...

ExclusiveCommitment-Phobe’s Journey: Guilty pleasure apps

Cell Phone Apps Since the days of the original season of Survivor, indulging in celeb-reality drama has remained a tried and true way to unwind, de-stress and otherwise slow down the constant wheels turning in my head. These days, between work, home and a toddler,...

ExclusiveCommitment-Phobe’s Journey: Palm makes going paperless even easier

Commitment-Phobe'S Journey Giving my less than technology-savvy self a little slack, it wasn’t entirely my fault that the calendar app had been left unused and unloved for the last several months. Every time I tried to open the calendar, it would take several minutes and...

ExclusiveCommitment-Phobe's Journey: Educational apps for kids

Commitment-Phobe'S Journey With the summer about over and school quickly approaching, my daughter and I have been on the go and traveling in an effort to enjoy the last few weeks of warmth and sunshine. Daughter in tow, flights no longer involve finding a great book to get...

ExclusiveCommitment-Phobe's Journey: Call waiting confusion

Commitment-Phobe'S Journey Juggling various phone calls is a common occurrence in my household. Whether it is a busy day at work or my toddler suffered yet another “traumatic head injury” (which is how I now reference it to get us to the head of the line with the doctor’s...

ExclusiveCommitment-Phobe’s Journey: “Pre”-pare for scale

Commitment-Phobe'S Journey Some of my readers like to tease that “Palm is dead”. Now I may not be an expert, but I think I’ll let the #10 Fortune 500 company do the talking. Would HP, or any other company for that matter, really spend $1.2 billion on a dying or defunct...

ExclusiveCommitment Phobe's Journey: Electronic checklists

Commitment-Phobe'S Journey One of my goals over the last few years has been to cut down on my use and storage of paper. To the extent possible, I have eliminated receiving, sending and maintaining paper mail, bills and other important documents both at home and work. One...

ExclusiveCommitment Phobe's Journey: What does your mobile email signature say about you?

Commitment-Phobe'S Journey I am not sure where mobile email signatures began, but what was once a casual occurrence has quickly become widespread. I remember first seeing the “Sent via Blackberry” signature and then the escalation to “Sent from my iPhone”, “Sent from my Palm...

ExclusiveCommitment-Phobe's Journey: Where's My Car?

Commitment-Phobe'S Journey As a mom, absentmindedness comes with the job. Since this trait applies to many other overtasked individuals out there as well, I am on a constant quest to find and discuss those apps that can really help in a pinch. Where’s My Car? is one such...

UpdatedCommitment-Phobe's Journey: Apple compliments Palm?

Commitment-Phobe'S Journey Reflecting on last week, there’s a lot for Palm faithfuls to talk about. First we learned that several smartphone top dogs were vying to purchase Palm, including Apple, Research In Motion and Google. With all of the...

ExclusiveCommitment-Phobe's Journey: The joys of visual voicemail

Commitment-Phobe'S Journey Voicemail. I may not like it, but as long as my Palm plays such an important role in my daily life, it’s a necessary evil. Retrieving voicemail is a lengthy process - you call the voicemail system, wait for the prompts, type in your code, listen...

ExclusiveCommitment-Phobe's Journey: Great go-to apps

Cell Phone Apps Most webOS users have long since known of the half-off sale in the app catalog and are hopefully taking advantage of it. If you are just learning this for the first time, get moving because the promotion is scheduled to end tomorrow, July...

ExclusiveCommitment-Phobe's Journey: Personalization is not a myth

Commitment-Phobe'S Journey When it comes to webOS, personalization has long been one of the biggest complaints by both reviewers and consumers. While webOS has excelled in bringing to life a sleek, practical and fun operating system, customization and personalization have...

UpdatedCommitment-Phobe's Journey: The HP-Palm union

Commitment-Phobe'S Journey There is certainly a lot of excitement going around since last week’s announcement that HP would be acquiring Palm. Once all of the legal logistics are worked out, the potential for some great new devices and concepts are limitless with HP’s...

ExclusiveCommitment-Phobe's Journey: Is Palm dead?

Commitment-Phobe'S Journey On the heels of Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein’s declarations concerning the company’s future, a potential buyout of Palm, Inc. has been all the buzz. So the question on everyone’s mind is whether a buyout will breathe some life back into the Palm...

ExclusiveCommitment-Phobe's Journey: Wikiplaces and GoodFood for Palm webOS

Commitment-Phobe'S Journey Wikiplaces is an app that utilizes your phone’s GPS and location services to find Wikipedia-archived places of interest close to where you are - wherever you are. GoodFood similarly uses the GPS and location services on your phone to find area...

ExclusiveCommitment-Phobe's Journey: Mobile HotSpot on moving day

Commitment-Phobe'S Journey Smartphones step aside, Palm has given us something (more) to talk about. While the Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus have always offered the Mobile HotSpot feature, Verizon announced on April 1 that this service would be reduced from $40/month to free. ...

ExclusiveCommitment-Phobe's Journey: webOS' Universal Search

Commitment-Phobe'S Journey I have to admit, when I first purchased my Pre Pus, I may have ignored the bit about Universal Search. From what I remember, I heard something to the effect of “and another way to locate...” and all I thought was redundancy and unnecessary. Last...

ExclusiveKeep the "Phone" in Smartphone

Palm Webos My initial selection of the Palm Pre Plus was swayed heavily by webOS and its sophisticated multitasking and notification capabilities. The more I use my Pre Plus, I am finding many other great features worth noting. First, the most basic feature -...

ExclusivePalm Pre Plus & webOS: A commitment-phobe’s journey

Commitment-Phobe'S Journey Part of my problem was also that I couldn’t find the smartphone that held that special spark for me. I began to wonder whether I would ever find “the one.” Why wasn’t there an eHarmony for smartphones that could match me with my dream phone based...