Comments on: Contact search finally added to iPhone in iPhone 2.0 update

By: Joe Hutsko

Joe Hutsko — Fri, 22 May 2009 11:46:08 +0000

Nope, another lame oversight. You can search by name, but not partial phone number or area code, nor can you search on an email address (i.e. @nytimes.com to help me recall which editor it was I wrote for a few years ago, etc.), nor can you search on a street address or city or any information you may have plugged into the notes field. That said, I believe the inclusion of Spotlight in the iPhone 3.0 update, coming soon, will allow you to find anything, anywhere, similar to the way other smart phones do it, and how the new Palm Pre does it. Two years later, and Apple sees the Spotlight, so to speak.

By: CharAp

CharAp — Fri, 22 May 2009 11:20:51 +0000

What about seraching for part of a telephone number?

By: Tandemguy

Tandemguy — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 19:26:57 +0000

In Contacts, scroll all the way to the top of the contacts, just above the A’s and a search box shows up. Type in first name of your contact and all contacts with that first name will appear in a list. Choose the one you need.

By: Linder

Linder — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 13:49:05 +0000

Love the phone, but not able to figure out how to use new search function, which is totally frustrating. Just entered a new contact and can’t remember the last name — so can’t find the contact! Any suggestions?

By: Joe Hutsko

Joe Hutsko — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 15:27:51 +0000

Just tried searching text that’s in the Notes field and nope, no ability to do so. How lame is that? I love the iPhone but it’s still one of the dumbest smart phones for reasons like this, no ability to sync Notes, and no way to voice dial with Bluetooth headset the way normal phones allow (and I don’t mean a separate app to dial by voice; the feature should be built in and access by simply tapping headset or other easy action…). And last but not least, let’s not forget my biggest peeve of all: Still no cut and paste. Doh!

By: Tom Guarriello

Tom Guarriello — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 14:45:48 +0000

But…it doesn’t search the Notes field, right??

By: Joe Hutsko

Joe Hutsko — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 14:12:07 +0000

While I won’t go so far as to say it’s a toy (I do get real work done on it, and the entertainment rewards are great) I’m on the same page as far as limitations like no to-do (or note) sync, no week view for calendar, and at the top of my list of dumbest oversight of a missing feature found on every other smartphone in the world – the lack of cut and paste. one small correction: you can search for contacts, though not for info within contacts, which stinks. And let’s not forget the inability to search within your email accounts or reorder emails by subject or sender, as I am sometimes want to do. Still, the iPhone is a spectacular mini computer that does a whole bunch of things right, but still doesn’t do a couple of things every other smartphone in the world can (and should) do, so here’s to hoping Apple and third-party developers continue to make it smarter and smarter rather than continue to dumbly ignore features that are still missing, as described above.

By: Obiwan69

Obiwan69 — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 12:55:01 +0000

The iPhone 3G is a toy. It’s not for work.
- It’s not possible to search into contacts, notes or calendar
- It takes ages to add a task into calendar
- There is no “week” view for the calendar
- cut, copy, paste are not available
- it does not synchronise todo lists and notes with outlook

If you want a PDA for work, find an old palm pilot from the previous century, it’s much more usefull.

But for listening music, playing games or drink a beer with iPint, it’s great !

By: Uwe Jansch

Uwe Jansch — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 13:20:48 +0000

Hi, on my old Sony Erricson I could search the data in contacts and notes, strange that Apple could not get that right yet?!
Regards
Uwe

By: Joe Hutsko

Joe Hutsko — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 14:30:42 +0000

I know I find that a bummer as well. On my pre-2.0 jailbroken iPhone there was a great app called Search, which searched more than only a few fields. Speaking of Notes, I wish the hell they’d come out with genuine Notes sync between iPhone and desktop apps like Stickies, SOHO Notes, Outlook’s sticky notes, etc. Add that to the wishlist with that other obvious yet missing feature, cut and paste.