Improvements Needed to iPhone Contact Management
In the year since iPhone was released I have been a lot more focused on creating and maintaining a complete address book. In a perfect world each contact would have data populated in all available fields. With nearly 350 contacts this has turned out to be a time-consuming task!
One thing that has complicated the process is the fact that the iPhone contacts feature does not include the full set of fields that are available in the Mac Address Book application. Missing fields include related names, maiden name, and instant messaging. A common workaround has been to utilize the note field to hold these details. Not a glamorous solution, but it works.
Missing fields will likely be more of an issue for business users who use additional information to personalize customer interactions. For example, prior to a business meeting a salesperson might review a customer contact record to enhance small talk. How are your wife Peggy and kids Paul and Beth?
An item that the road warrior will struggle with is the fact that you cannot edit contact information when on a call. This one is tough because the workaround involves a good memory, pen and paper, or the Notes application (without a clipboard). This would be an easy feature for Apple to add in a future software update.
iPhone 2.0 will include a new feature for searching contacts. After watching the WWDC keynote it appears that simply adding search to an application is a trivial task -- lets hope Apple has chosen to take the feature to the next level with search functionality that goes beyond searching the first and last name fields.
Use the comment section to share any improvements you wish Apple would make to the Contacts/Phone application!
As a Canadian, contact management is the least of my worries. Just be glad you don't have Rogers in the U.S.
http://www.ruinediphone.com/
It would be nice if you could create smart groups on the phone
The phone application should be the most advanced on the PHONE. They should add support for more advanced contact management like creating groups and the ability to transmit contacts between phones using Bluetooth.
The contacts screen will probably get more updates when the enterprise asks for it. It isn't like Apple is going to get feature requests from blog posts and their associated comments.
One thing I wish the contact screen did is calculate the number of years for dates like birthdays and anniversary.
Paul: I agree, the enterprise is going to help form the future iPhone releases.
Crkhd: This would be sweet. There are so many things Apple could do. The trick is making the interface for advanced users while not confusing everyone else.
I just found this site while searching for info on iPhone bugs. Are you planning another post for the 2.0 release?
As for contacts it would be nice if you could tap on someones picture to see the larger view rather than having to go into edit mode.
The iPhone would benefit from a global search feature that looks through all data on the phone.
Sending contacts to a friend with Bluetooth would be cool.
I am disappointed that I cannot sort contacts by company. As a business user, this deficiency is a huge detriment.
I was able to buy a 16G iPhone on eBay and crack it since I live on a Caribbean island. It was basically the dream phone. Until I started to discover that it is the worst thing I ever got. To start with Sync-ing with outlook is a disaster since i Phone supports only 7 contact fields. Imagine the stress when you have almost 1500 contacts like me. Another disaster is my country code is not programmed in the i Phone, all contacts without country code will not be recognized, so basically it's impossible to know who's calling unless the country code is added to every contact. And finally the Bluetooth!!! I have an Audi Q7 that links to a cell phone through Bluetooth to talk hands free while driving through its audio system. Well, Apple blocked the bluetooth option. In short i phone is not meant for the professional or business user, it's just for kids (My daughter loves it). The relief came today when I got into my Jacuzi forgetting the phone in my shorts :( ....I just send it for service to see if it could still be saved. A very sad experience with my first ever apple product.