App of the Week: 1Password

Written by: John Fiore

Categories: Cool Stuff, Reviews

In OS X we have the Keychain and Autofill features to make managing usernames and passwords very simple. Agile Web Solutions saw the room for improvement however, thus the creation of 1Password. It is easy to dismiss 1Password as an alternative to keychain and autofill, but doing so would not be taking note of the full power of the application. 

I tried the program on recommendation of a friend and at first found it nothing more than a “neat” app, but after making use of all its features I don’t see why they aren’t built into OS X already. If you do online banking, bill paying, or have any sensitive information stored on the web you’ll quickly see why 1Password is an essential component to the operating system.  

The problem with passwords is that they really should be complex, but we often are willing trade off security for something easy to remember. It doesn’t get any easier when you have more than one account on a website. 1Password not only remembers your existing passwords, but has an amazing GUI for creating insanely secure passwords. You can access all of these with a single master password.

  .Mac, iPhone, and Palm syncing allows you to bring these passwords with you easily wherever you go. And the security features include prevention from phishing scams and keyloggers. Even if these features may not at first look appealing to you, a use of the demo will almost surely sell you on it. Check out 1Password here, and don’t forget to watch the excellent Video Introduction.Available for $29.95 USD at 

1Passwd.com

There are 3 comments on App of the Week: 1Password:

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  1. smoverstreet | Nov 28 2007 - 11:07

    Where’s the link to the product?

  2. Jim Larson | Nov 30 2007 - 09:15

    I also use 1Password and find it to be an extremely well written and easy to use application. There are certainly other programs that will do similar things, but not with the same elegance as this one.

    Jim

  3. Tim Mooney | Dec 10 2007 - 11:47

    I recently took advantage of a free MacWorld promo for 1Password, and I have to say it’s revolutionized my dual Mac life. I now have passwords syncing between Macs with .Mac and I can save a secure version of all of the passwords in my iPhone for the (as yet unneeded, but theoretical) time when I need the passwords when away from my iMac or PowerBook. Highly, highly recommended!