Thumbtacts – Review

Our rating:

By: Crimson Research

Version #: 1

Date Released: 2008-09-01

Developer:

Price: 0.00

User Rating:

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Searching for a specific content has always been a bit of an issue on the iPhone- especially if you have hundreds of contacts.. While the new firmware adds a search function and greatly improves it over what was initially shipped, it still isn’t as fast as searching was on a Windows Mobile device or my wife finds on her (recently returned to from the iPhone) Palm device.

So I was excited to see the release of Thumbtacts. The program description is as follows-

Thumbtacks allows you search your contacts using one hand. To find a contact, touch and option (a letter or character string) to proceed to the next set of available matches. Don’t see your match? Touch the “more” button. To view additional matching results. You can review your selection so far in the top field. If you make a mistake, touch the “back” button to go back a step, or the “home” button to start over.

Sounds great, right? Unfortunately, it is more trouble than it is worth.
 
Since “people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones” I won’t make mention of the fact that the description that was submitted to iTunes for this application has more mistakes in three sentences than 100 other applications combined. What I will mention, though, is the fact that while this application is a great concept (not to mention one that is sorely needed), in actual execution it fails completely. Here’s why —

The process of using the application is as follows —

— start the application

— tap one of the four letters that are initially shown (S, J, M, R) or, if the name you are looking for doesn’t begin with one of them tap the center “more” button to reveal four more letters.

-When you get to the first letter tap it. 

-this brings up four choices for the second letter. If it is there, tap it. If it is not there tap the more button to reveal four more letters. Etc etc.

-tap the second letter selection when it is displayed

-This brings up four third letter choices. If it is there, tap it. If it is not there tap the more button to reveal four more letters. Etc etc.

Are you getting the picture yet?

In my experience Thumbtacts does the impossible- it takes the cumbersome contact search and makes it even worse.

I won’t even make mention of the fact that when you start the application you need to wait a number of seconds before the address book loads into the program. (Yes, I know that with the new version of the iPhone/iPod Touch firmware the contacts themselves take a while to load. This is worse.)

A contact app should make searching for contacts quick and easy. Unfortunate, this application does neither. It’s free, but it’s not worth the time it takes to download it. Maybe it will be in a future version but for now my suggestion is — take a pass.

Quick Take

Value:  zero
Would I Buy Again:  no
Learning Curve: medium
Who is it for:  no one since it works so poorly
What I like:  it is free, cool "spring" action on the middle button
What I Don’t:  everything else

Final Statement: Good try.