Hi there, I am at the Apple store in Cambridge MA right now and asked them about it. There is definitely no search function, the staff here are not sure what that's about and I even had one guy apologize for the absence of that feature. The device is great and I can already type on it. But until small things like that get resolved I'm afraid I'm going to have to lug around my big old blackberry.

Good observation. I was wondering whom else had noticed!

I also can't believe there is no search function on the iPhone. I assumed it must have that capability but it does not. Also, there is no way to copy and paste text into notes. But I guess if you can't search, what's the point? I am returning it today.
Also no video; my Treo 700w call do all of the above. The iPhone is an expensive iPod!

My friend and I also discussed this lack of feature. I verified from Apple on July 4 that there is no search. For me, the ability to search contacts is a must have necessity. It is a shame that Apple did not include just a basic search feature like this until a more comprehensive search feature is available. Shame.

I'm sure that it wouldn't take that much work to add a search function to the iPhone. Maybe GOOG can provide an iPhone search applet...?

Yes a BIG miss no search feature. Will they be allowing 3rd party basics like this

Amazing.. i can't lookup in iCal notes i made about jobs i did, i can't look up songs by name in ipod, i can't search for anything in anything. So i can keep my 4 year old palm pda to use for real world stuff, and i have a very expensive toy that doubles as a phone.... WTF?

UNREAL that there is no search function. I have more than 1700 contacts with info and cannot search. Beginning to have second thoughts.

Also, If I have 200 "S's" in contact list cannot go directly to a name. Have to scroll through s's. THIS DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE.

ABSOLUTELY INSANE that the iPhone has no search feature - my guess would be they couldn't make it work in time, no doubt the iPhone is updateable by apple, maybe a search feature will show up in iPhone firmware update 1.1 - but until then I am going to have to lug around my serviceless Treo 650 and hope they both sync repeatedly to the same mac with no hassles.

also - you should be able to get to the address book from the main menu without having to go into the phone menu

AND - on the Treo you can bring up your contacts and type a couple letters and everyone with a first OR last name starting with those letters will be filtered out

the animated scrolling contact list is neat but for that to be the ONLY way to find a contact is ridiculous

I can deal with the keyboard, though another update I am hoping for is Bluetooth keyboard support,

but

IF ia search feature is not adressed in the first update I think I will sell mine :( that sucks cause I love it, but it has not turned out to be replacement for the Treo yet :(

too bad

This is simply BAD from apple, same thing happened to me when looking for a search on the contacts.

How about not able to clear individual call logs from the phone and instead only clear the full call log is available?

Also please create a good way to synch with exchange servers

I'm glad I found this post. I was searching for almost an hour for the search functionality which I was sure I was missing. 4-8 gigs and you can't search it (except in one or two ovelry specific ways)!!!! I hope there's a way of pressuring Apple for a free software release. You may as well build the Libarary of Congress and have, in effect, no catalog.

No search. No copy/paste. No video. No To Do list. No way to sync my notes from my PDA.

How can this be a 21st century device without even the basics? I can't even sync the Notes that I make ON the iPhone. This is impossible to believe. How can there be no way for me to migrate from my PDA? I still have to keep my PDA with me for the Notes app only!!

In addition, I wanted to read a novel while I'm on my train ride to work. I tried several different ways to get the 200 pages into the iPhone to NO AVAIL! I tried to email it to myself as a PDF. As soon as I have no EDGE network I have no email file. I tried to put it in iPhoto. Each page ended up as a separate file. And it was crappy looking, too. How about trying to find the page I was on? No way. I have to scroll all the way thru the email attachment each and every time I stop reading the novel. I tried to add the text to the notes field of a new contact. I could only get about 200 words in that field.

This is so frustrating. There better be some onboard apps for this thing soon. So what about web-based applets. They do no good whatsoever if you have no comm signal.

How come theres no way to DELETE ALL email at once? You have to go through and delete one at a time? What's up with that?

Yes, there are many things lacking in the iPhone, and I have no doubt that they will be corrected. The iPhone is a reprogrammable device, nothing is carved into stone, and I have no doubt all of these issues will be addressed without havng to buy a new phone. Even with its faults, it is still way ahead of anything else out there. Will Apple be able to maintain such a lead? We'll see...

I think my iPhone is very cool, but it is far from a complete product for business people.

email sync seems challenging at best. It downloads emals from the server, but doesn't synchronize with my Outlook's Inbox? Huh?

Are there any "help" functions? It really could use some help, especially as the feature list ever grows.

my iPhone battery lasts a LOT longer than my treo 680, but the lack of search, and the missing copy/paste functions really make me scratch my head. assuredly these are features that are in the pipeline, there's no way this product can live w/o basics like those. it is nice to have a wifi phone tho; overall it's a great product

I thought I was the only one who couldn't figure out how to search my iPhone. I used that feature on my Treo HOURLY. I love the iPhone but this has got to get fixed, FAST. It is going to be a real pain in the ass until it is. Also the mail has to be deleted one at a time. If anyone knows how to "delete all" PLEASE let me know.
Stevie Jobs, your spending too much time watching your Disney stock...you missed this one BIG TIME.

Well leave it to Google. There is a great way to search for contacts in an iPhone. Go to Google Maps then clear the search field, as you type google guesses frm your contacts that have an address. The contact just needs something in the address a zip, a city, then it will place the contact on the map and the you can hit the blue right carrot and it will give phone numbers from the contact, and press and dial. it seems long but if you think in maps it works. Thanks Google

I found another way to search for contacts. It is useful for finding a contacts full name, but nothing else. Go to Text Message and start a new Message. In the To: box type some letters in the name. As you type the letters it displays search results. I thought the text messaging keyboard would be bad, but this has become biggest limitation in iPhone so far. I have way too many Contacts for no REAL search.

Also syncing appointments created on Outlook 2007 (Vista) dont copy to the iPhone on my configuration. However, I get appointment sync iPhone to Outlook. AAAHHH.... People ask me about what i think about iPhone. I say "it is a fun toy" but i am going back to my Treo after the fun wears off"

Thanks for the workarounds on searching the iPhone. It's strange that Apple forgot to add a simple search function. I guess Steve jobs can't be expected to think of everything.

i suspect the reason apple neglected to include a search function is that they never incorporated heavy business users into the design process. the iphone is mainly an elegant ipod with limited email capacity (after getting over the candy quality of safari on iphone, one quickly realizes it has virtually no true utility other than to check ballgame scores). the product was designed for not for the consultant with 750 contacts and hundreds of emails, but the kid with too much money who sends and receives a lot of text messages and listens to music.

I guess all agreed that the following 3 are the big missing:
1) Contact Search feature
2) Sync Notes
3) Copy/Paste capacity

Since July, we had 2 version updates, and these features are still missing.
I hope somebody write native application at least for Search (not a Finder searching the Web, I want to search my contacts writing any field !!)
Regarding 2) I read a suggestion in other forum "sync through Plaxo"... I can't believe... my Notes (bank account, pass, credentials, etc) on the Web ? No, Thanks.
I love my iPhone, I miss my 650.

it took me 20 minutes before i realized Steve Jobs missed this one huge! i read somebody saying he's not expected to think of everything, and i disagree! i think that's why we always paid more for his prodducts! design and flexibility! the iphone is so egocentric it wont let anyone develop anything using its internal architecture! that would be ok if it worked!! really got it on saturday and came back to my 6550 on monday morning! i need things to look good AND be usefull!
ps i never ever had a PC in my entire life ! but i m afraid apple is becoming a deluxe PC...please Steve don t forget to incorporate the good things and ideas other people have, and use them as they do with yours!!

Try scrolling through 4000 contacts on an iphone. It's like a monte python skit... "were almost there, nearly there not, it's just up ahead...." It's painful.

Try this .....

http://justanotheriphoneblog.com/wordpress/2007/10/25/new-app-iphone-contacts-search-call/