AppleInsider Staff
The inability to search the address book and phone number listings has stood out as one of the iPhone's most glaring omissions given that such capabilities have routinely been included out-of-the-box on most rival handsets.
At last month's iPhone Software Roadmap event, Apple inadvertently dropped hints that the feature would finally arrive as part of the iPhone software v2.0 due this June when a slide demonstrating the some of the update's features revealed an inconspicuous magnifying glass icon atop the phone app's alphabet search strip.
Although the first few external betas of the iPhone software v2.0 did not include the feature, build 5A240d released on Tuesday does according to Engadget, as evidenced by the below screenshots.
Also new to the latest beta is an iCal meeting invites folder, accessible via a drawer icon at the bottom of the iPhone's iCal application — a button that was disabled in previous builds.
Andrew Orr
Amber Neely
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
40 Comments
Calling it an "invite" instead of an "invitation" is a very advance feature.*
* That's right. "Advance."
Nice news!
But when a to do list is going to be available ?
Exchange Notes and Tasks support, please.
While I'm glad a search feature is coming, but I don't think it's really needed for the consumer side. I have about 250 contacts and never have any trouble locating who I want. I have categories setup in Address Book that carry over and the ability to quickly flick to where I want to go; but the alphabet on the right side with will instantly get me to a last name or company I need.
The iPhone's fast UI and capacitance touchscreen make it much faster than any other phone or smartphone I've used. I probably won't be using the search feature much and, if I do, only if it can also search obscure information in the contact Notes.
I do have a use for searching contacts, since I have such a mound of business contacts, each of whom I seldom contact. But searching other stuff--like Notes and Bookmarks would be even more welcome!