Nearly a year after its release, the iPhone is finally getting a feature every mobile phone already has – the ability to search contacts. The no-brainer missing feature was the number one item in my iPhone wish list story for MSNBC (iWish: iPhone updates we’d like to see – Our top 25 suggestions for making the super-slick device even better.)
From the iPhone webpage, in Apple’s own words:
If you have a lot of contacts, use the search feature to quickly find specific names.
No-duh.
At this rate, does that mean we won’t see the second wish list item (a feature found on every other smartphone): Copy and paste?
All i can say…
HAHAHAHA!
Apple’s newer invention!
Searching!Through!Contacts!
Besides: Hey!Why they don’t sell searching contacts as a app for Iphone?
“search” looks at name, address and phone number. It does not look in notes. Is there a published spec somewhere on exactly which fields the iphones “search” feature looks at?
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.
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
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 !
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.
But…it doesn’t search the Notes field, right??
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!
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?
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.