Contact Find
| Category | Price | Seller | Device |
|---|---|---|---|
| Productivity | $1.99 | Piet Jonas | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
Version 1.1 has several long awaited new features:
- Much faster startup because the contacts only have to be imported once and are cached afterwards
- Faster search
- Search for several keywords. It finds the contacts which contain all of them
- Explicit search for job, department and company field
- Newlines in the notes field are preserved
Reviews
Very good indeed after upgrade
ptkap
Contact Find originally had it all except for speed. It searches in all fields and is very efficient. It you, as I, use the notes field as a free-form database for all kinds of information, you need a fast and reliable search engine to find things. Contact Find now qualifies. I have about 1,300 contacts, some of them with a large amount of text in the notes field. I can enter any string and it is found in very few seconds. It does this by keeping available the last set of Outlook contacts that was fed into it so that it does not have to reload them when it receives a query. Thus, it is a good idea manually to order it to update its contacts once in a while. Otherwise the newest information will not be available. That is a small priice to pay!
The app for which I have been waiting
ptkap
I use the "Notes" field in Outlook as a free-form database, entering all sorts of information there including e-mail addresses, etc. I have been doing this for years and have nearly 1,300 contacts almost all of which consist of a name and a note, no other fields being used. I need a search engine that will search all of the words in the notes and the name fields. Contact Find does that, and does it well. One can search all fields or only one named field (such as "Notes"). Obviously, searching a single field is appreciably faster. I hope that the developers will add an option to search multiple fields together (such as "Notes" and "Name"), but the lack of that facility is not reason enough to deprive the app of five stars.
Not so fast...
Digital Dude
Review of Version 1.0 Figuratively and literally, the App is slow to open and slow to type in the search criteria. Also, the text and selection fields are super-tiny! The App Store SAMPLE is somewhat misleading whereby the sub-text appears to be larger than it actually is. Also, if you expect to view any notes; good luck with that 2-pt text. In summary, the App truly has potential but for me, it simply isn’t quite ready for my home screen. Regards, ~DD
Palm Users - Rejoice!
Jim384720999
For Palm users or x-Palm users, here is the App we have been waiting for on the iPhone. Keep in mind it only searches the iPhone Contact List (not the yellow “Notes” files on your iPhone). But it’s the first search tool that can search all the various fields in your Contact List, not just the name field. For those that don’t understand the need for this: Say you had a company install a beautiful skylight in your home two years ago, and you put the company info into your contact list along with the word “Skylight” in the memo field. At dinner your friends talk about putting in a skylight and ask you for the name of the company that did yours. You could manually scroll through hundreds of your contacts like a Rolodex in hopes of coming across it, or using this App, just type in “Skylight” and retrieve the information immediately. This is one strength of the Palm platform, and now the iPhone can have that same functionality. The App must load your hundreds of contacts into memory each time you open the program, so you must wait 15 seconds or more before the search can take place. However, during that time you can type ahead into the search field and have your form completed and ready to tap “Search.” After the iPhone 2.1 update, Apps no longer crash. This works just as advertised.
DOA
dblazensky
Crashes within seconds on every launch attempt with iPhone V2.1 software. Tried resetting phone, re-sync -- nothing works. I have 1200 contacts.
Terrible, Terrible
Steve Abraham
Program crashes for me too. I have approx. 2,200 contacts. The program has to "read" all contacts before you can even do a search, which makes it time consuming and rediculous. Then, when it reads approx. 1,849 contacts it crashed and exits. Another reminder that all applications should be a try-before-you-buy. It's not the $2.99, it's the principle!
Doesn't Work
HP_Steve
The functionality of the app sounds great, but it crashes when I try to launch it, so I cannot even test it. This application clearly is not yet ready for prime time!
9-23 Nonfunctional
pianoart
I purchased this app to search contacts using the notes field. Upon opening, the program has to compile an index EVERY time you use it. I have about 1,800 contacts. It took my phone about 2 minutes before it was even ready for a search! Then, upon searching, I discovered you can only search by one keyword! Thus, if I'm trying to do a search on multiple criteria, the program is useless. Furthermore, if there is a problem and the app crashes, I have to repeat the whole process and wait another 2 minutes before I can do another search! This app is basically nonfunctional and I would discourage anyone from purchasing it. It's horrible that Apple has not included this simple functionality in the iPhone. I'm also greatly disappointed that I can't do a search for events in Calendar. These were 2 of the most important functions that I used daily when I had my Palm Treo, a vastly less powerful handheld computer!
terrible...
8goals
It crashed when I first downloaded it. I can never use it! I waited for the upgrade, hoping that it would be fixed, no such luck! It still crashes as soon as it starts to read the contacts. Need my $$ back!!
Excellent application - fills an important need
gen eric
This latest release is working perfectly for me. Note that I had not been able to use the first version after repeated crashes. Though the reviews have been poor, I think most reviewers have not really been able to work with Contact Find and need to give it another chance. Coming to an iPhone from Windows Mobile (used out of desperation for PDA functions, even as a dedicated Mac user), I was incredibly disappointed to be unable to search throughout my contact fields (as I had done on my WM devices). For instance: I get a page or message to return a phone call to xxx-yyyy phone number. It looks familiar, but who is it? Now I can find this immediately. Also, I use my Address Book (Contacts) notes extensively, especially for fields that don't sync. I can now search through these notes allowing much enhanced productivity. With the inexplicable lack of ToDo syncing via Calendar, I have had to make a Contact called "ToDo", where I keep my updated ToDo list in the Notes section. Now, I can easily search this as well. I have found Piet Jonas to be incredibly responsive and helpful in improving this application. I expect Contact Find to get even better in future versions. It is really one of the best I have found, and actually does something that helps improve the utility of my iPhone (as opposed to the vast majority of other applications). Bottom line: great application, will be even better. If it crashes for you, I strongly urge you to try the newer version to see its true value. I only wish something similiar could be made for Calendar entries.
