iPhone: Much Needed “Search” application added to 3rd Party Apps

I have been waiting for an application like this to be released and today it magically appeared in my “Recent Packages” directory on my Installer 3 iPhone App. The release version is 1.0b and is showcased on ModMyiphone.com according to the “More Info” link within the Package Viewer.

The description there is simply “Search your contacts and call them. Dial up a date and go straight to it in Calendar” and it pretty much lives up to that description. The application seems to have been launched publicly on 10.23.07. The original application, though, seems to be by a developer listed at: www.polarbearfarm.com where they have a direct link to download the Search application (easiest way, though, is through the installer.app).

It seems to currently only work on firmware 1.1.1 but not necessarily on 1.0.2 however some users have reported that it works fine on 1.0.2. Current functionality is as follows:

Initial page:

You have two types of search options: Go To Date and Search Contacts. Also, you are prompted by a “Please Donate” on the initial launch of the application.

There is also a License field where supposedly you can put in a license after you have donated (I have not tried that functionality).

Go To Date page:

Clicking this button brings up a dialer selection box (for lack of a better term) where you can select Month, Day and Year.

Clicking Go To Date then closes Search and opens your Calendar application on that selected date. Years go back to the year “0” in the dialer, which, when clicking the “Go To Date” drops you in 2006 (1 year ago) if you are in the List view.

However, clicking the Month or Day view puts you in January 2, 0001. What is also interesting (and this has nothing to do with the Search application) is that you cannot go to different Months when you are that far “back in time.” There also seems to be a limit to how far forward you can go in time (with the same sort of display as back in time – the Jan 2, 0001 – at least on my test), but that limitation is on the Calendar and not the Search application. The Search application does, though, seem to work as designed. It would be nice to have a search of Appointment names which may be slotted for the future.

Search Contacts page:

This area searches the First and Last Names and Company Name (seemingly) of your Addresses. The search results that are return only show the phone number(s) of the contact selected. There are requests to add in email addresses as well as this would be a logical extension of the functionality. I would also see that if you display the address, you should be able to link it in with Google Maps. This seemed to work as expected but only returns results on English characters and not other languages (yet).

In my opinion, this looks like a very solid initial release. Search does what it is supposed to do. With a few more hooks (e.g., to email or Google Maps), this would be a solid “must have” application. This is something that I feel Apple neglected to include in their own apps. I look forward to updates to this Application.

HTD says: Be sure to install Search! It is a useful utility.