Poll: Do you use iPhone Spotlight search?
Spotlight search: Handy addition or forgotten feature?
Spotlight search, one of the high-profile features introduced with OS 3.0 last month, lets you search contacts, appointments, music, mail, and more without first loading their respective apps.
In other words, it's a time-saver. In theory.
Confession time: I haven't touched Spotlight once since installing OS 3.0 on my 3G. On a few occasions I've flicked past my apps and landed on the search screen, invariably prompting the same reaction: "Huh. Forgot that was there."
I have used Mail's new in-box search, which frequently proves invaluable. But Spotlight strikes me as a backward approach. Maybe it's me; I'm accustomed to running apps first and looking for data second. That's how I do things on the desktop, so it feels natural to do likewise on my iPhone. Old dog, old tricks.
What about you? Do you think Spotlight is the greatest addition since copy and paste, or does it sit, forgotten and unused, to the left of your apps? Cast your vote below!
Rick Broida, a technology writer for nearly 20 years, is the author of more than a dozen books. In addition to writing CNET's The Cheapskate blog, he oversees BNET's Business Hacks. Rick is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CBS Interactive. Disclosure. Deals found on The Cheapskate are subject to availability, expiration, and other terms determined by sellers. Follow Rick on Twitter at cheapskateblog.
To be fair, I don't have a pre-3.0 OS to experiment with to see if the contact search works differently.
So, if you want to search for entries by company, you don't have to use the Spotlight search to do this. At least in OS 3.0.
a shame web history isn't searchable.
a developer told me apple hasn't said when-if-ever they'll include other apps in overall searches. for me this is a disincentive to entering data in those apps -- outliners and task lists need our love!
of course it's pretty strange that apple's now in its 3rd year of ignoring ical/mail to-dos. i guess they haven't figured a way to charge us for each new task item...?
(using the login-to-comment machinery here on an iphone is really frustrating....)
Apparently, the only info that is searchable in contacts is the name and company name. I wonder if the index data would take up too much space to allow searching on the other fields.
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by SNOOP_ROCA
July 29, 2009 9:27 PM PDT
- i think twice, good concept, but I already memorized where my apps are
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