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Since the days of the Palm, Pocket PC, one of folks’ favorite software have been a password manager. Having a password manager that keeps key information with you can be very helpful:

  1. Whenever you are on the go, needs to access a website but can’t remember your login, you can always refer to this.
  2. You need to remember your father or your mother’s critical info, you can refer to this.
  3. Someone asks you about a certain secure system’s work procedure. It is complex enough for you not to be able to remember off your head. You can store it in this so that people getting access to your iPhone will not be able to knwo this vital piece of information

The list can go on and on but at the end of the day we look for a few things more than other factors when we are evaluating which software to purchase to store our passwords and logons.

This week, i will be evaluating SplashID. Its a software that have its roots from the Palm days and you can be sure the guys behind this know what they are doing since they have been doing this from a long time back.

Password Manager must be secure

You will be likely storing alot of information that

  • concerns your own privacy
  • your family’s privacy
  • monetary and finance information
  • secured logins for sensitive sites
  • work related confidential keys and info

The easy way out when it comes to security is not store it anywhere! not even on your desktop computer! but there is a fine line here as if we store all these info in our brain and we forgot about them, chances are we will face another set of problem.

My advice to all is that those super crucial information (bank logins, ATM pins and those software/sites you use to aggregate information) remember them by hard and not record them down. Only use these password software for privacy stuff like forum logons, CD-Key for registered software, non sensitive website logons)

This way you control the worse case scenario where if you lose that info and they manage to crack it ( hats off to them if they manage to do that!) you don’t lost all those things that have the greatest impact to you.

The nutshell is that you still have to rely a bit on your brain. Don’t worry, exercising the brain is good for you.

SplashID uses the AES and 256Bit – Blowfish encryption which are the industry standards. As far as i know Blowfish and AES are not easy to crack. .In fact, i believe if the password you use is strong [Creating Strong Passwords >>] then cracking them will prove to be not lucrative deal (my research shows me that no one have cracked them yet)

The data file used is encrypted by Blowfish and i believe the passcode that you use at the login is using AES encryption.

What i like about SplashID here is that they enable you free play on the kind of password for the passcode. Password1 Pro for example lets you enter a 4 numeric password, which is much weaker without other ascii characters. (however it have 2 levels of password, even though getting by the first level enables you to view the password already!)

Browse by Category, Searching

I shall not venture too much into this area of explaining about browsing since a password manager’s job is to enable you to view your info at a glance.

SplashID does a good job here in that you can choose what type of info you are storing, and the category of the info to store it as, whether it is Personal, or Business.

In addition you can filter by searching for a specific phrase. I tend to use this most of the time as it is likely that you will ALWAYS not remember which category what you are searching for is under.

Backup, Restore and Desktop Synchronization

Another important aspect is how do you backup your data. Backup of data is usually done through a proprietary software and in the cash of SplashId it can only be performed via a wireless synchronization with a desktop software.

Once you are synchonized, if you are moving from Palm, Windows or other platforms, you will be able to restore your SplashId database to your desktop client for iPhone and then sync with the iPhone.

Most password managers used this option as this is the most viable method. I used to hope that i have a password manager that can do offline sync with a server database, but probably no company thinks it is viable enough to do something like that for things that are so dear to an individual.

The switching cost

The thing about these password managers is that if you use SplashID or in my case Keepass to keep your secured stuff you will most likely look to the same provider instead of jumping to a better alternative. Import and Export for password managers at best is through a CSV file. That will need the user some time to format the CSV so that it is compatible with SplashID.

SplashID vID
You may import and export SplashID records in SplashID Virtual ID (vID) format, which allows you to export and import records in a secure, encrypted format. vID files may be encrypted by assigning a password when exporting. The recipient of the vID file may import the data into their copy of SplashID Desktop by double-clicking the file, or choosing Import/SplashID vID from the File Menu. If a password was assigned to the file, the recipient must enter the password in order to import the data.

vID files are a convenient way to share records with a coworker or spouse by exporting a vID file, assigning a password (optional), and then emailing the resulting vID file to the recipient. You can even use the vID format as a backup mechanism by periodically exporting a vID file and archiving it on a backup disk.

*New in SplashID 4* — You can also use the Email button on the SplashID desktop to export vID files and attach them to a new email message.

CSV
You may also import and export SplashID records in CSV format. CSV stands for Comma Separated Values, and is a common file format readable by most spreadsheets, databases and word processors. If you wish to import a CSV file, the data must be in the following format:

Type, Custom 1, Custom 2, Custom 3, Custom 4, Custom 5, Custom 6, Custom 7, Custom 8, Custom 9, Date Modified, Notes, Category

It is easy to create the above format in Excel by creating a spreadsheet with 13 columns (as designated above) with one record per row. Then save the file in CSV format.

Note: When importing data, if the type field is blank the record will be placed in Unfiled. If there is a type name and it does not match an existing type a new type will be created.

The cost

Password managers don’t normally come cheap. SplashID for iPhone will set you back USD 9.99.

However, there can be additional cost.

If you are not an existing splashID user and would like to backup your data to a computer or have the option to key in at 2 location, you can download the 30 day trial [Link Here>>] or after you like this concept, purchase this desktop client for USD19.90.

If you are an existing splashID user (that have a splashID desktop. this is different from this one im talking about) and would like to sync your data to your iPhone SplashID, you can get the SplashID desktop for iPhone free. You can request for a registration code and keying in the registration code will convert the 30day trial desktop software to registered.

Conclusion

The combination for this solution is not cheap. if you are a new user you will need to set you back USD 30 bucks. If you are an existing splashid user probably 10 bucks.

By no means are the alternative (Password1 and mSecure (USD23+3)) are cheap.

However, if you are looking for a good password manager solution, you want one that you know is going to be around for a long time, one that should you switch to another platform, be it web, another phone OS or desktop OS you are able to bring your data to that platform.

SplashID have its tentacles across many platforms:

  1. Palm OS
  2. Windows Mobile
  3. Android
  4. iPhone
  5. Symbian S60
  6. Blackberry
  7. Windows
  8. OS X