iPad password management apps

I spent some time over the last couple of days reviewing password managers for the iPad, so I figure I might as well write up my notes here, in case they might be of use to anyone else. (I should mention that I gave up on iKeepass, which I mentioned a couple of posts back.)

I limited myself to applications that had an iPad app (as opposed to just an iPhone app) and a Mac app that could synchronize with its iPad counterpart.

  • DataVault is a $10 universal app. It has a Mac desktop version that also sells for $10. (There are also Windows and BlackBerry versions.)
  • SplashID has a $10 iPad app and a $20 Mac desktop version.
  • MSecure is the cheapest app I looked at. It’s only $3 for a universal iPad/iPhone app. There’s a desktop version available for Windows or Mac for $15.
  • Password Wallet is a $5 universal app, so it’s another cheap one. The Mac desktop version is $20 (but you get a 25% discount when you buy the iPad app, so it’s really $15.)
  • 1Password is a pretty well-known app. It’s $7 for an iPad-only version or $15 for a universal version. The Mac desktop app is fairly expensive, at $40. (I actually own an older version of the desktop app from an old MacHeist bundle, so I could upgrade for $25.)

I would probably have gone with 1Password, except that recent reviews in the app store seem to be pretty mixed, so I just wasn’t sure it would work well. All the others seemed to be pretty decent, and any of them would likely have worked ok.

In the end, I decided to go with DataVault. I liked the look of it, and the reviews were pretty good. I’ve got it all set up now, on my Mac and iPad, and it’s working OK. It’s not great, but it’s good enough to manage a handful of passwords. I’m not going to use it to replace KeePass; rather, I’m just going to keep a subset of my passwords in there, just stuff I think I’ll need on the iPad.

The Mac desktop client has a few shortcomings. The program window, strangely, can be resized horizontally, but not vertically. And it doesn’t save its size and position, so it always launches in a mode where it’s taking up most of the screen. Also, it’s not very keyboard-centric. I couldn’t find a keyboard shortcut to delete an entry, for instance.

The iPad app also has a few annoyances. For instance, all the fields are set up so that the first character will be capitalized by default on entry. That’s fine for a first or last name, but not really useful for a user name or password. There are other minor annoyances related to item entry, such that I don’t think I’ll be doing much entry on the iPad itself. (That’s fine, though; I plan to do most of the entry on the Mac side.)

The synchronization process is pretty simple. You just launch the desktop app and make a selection from the menu to put it in server mode. Then you launch the iPad app and hit the sync button. This should bring up a list of devices on your wifi network, including your Mac, which you can then select. The sync process just takes a few seconds. By default, you’ll have to verify deletions (on the desktop side). (The verification can be turned off.)

I think if I could do this all over again, I’d give SplashID a try. DataVault definitely isn’t quite good enough to replace KeePass and KeePassX for me. But it’s good enough to keep track of a handful of passwords that I may need on my iPad.

iPad note-taking and password management apps

I’ve been messing around with note-taking and password management apps on my iPad a bit today, so I thought I’d write up some notes.

First, for note-taking, I have Evernote and Satchel. I use Backpack on the web to keep track of a bunch of stuff, so Satchel is a good thing. As mentioned in my last post, it works well. I really don’t need Evernote too, but it’s free, so I’ve been playing around with it. I like the fact that it’s got desktop clients for Mac and Windows, in addition to the web client and the iPad/iPhone apps. I don’t think I’d give up on Backpack and move everything over to Evernote though.

I also use DEVONthink on my Mac and OneNote on my PC for note-taking. I should probably try to move away from both of those, and get all my info into Backpack and/or Evernote. Oh, and I use Google Docs too, though usually I’m using that for more structured documents rather than random notes.

For password management, I use KeePass on the PC and KeePassX on the Mac. I keep a single database in sync across all my computers via Windows Live Sync. Alas, there doesn’t seem to be a good KeePass client for the iPad/iPhone. I tried iKeepass today, but I couldn’t get it to work. It could open my KeePass file, but it wouldn’t expand the main tree to show me my passwords. I might be able to get around that, but I’m not sure I want to spend a lot of time on it.

There are a few good password managers for the iPad. I used SplashID on my Palm many years ago, and they have an iPad client now, so that might be a good choice. 1Password is pretty popular on the Mac. I’m not sure about their Windows client though. There are a few other programs, too, but I don’t know much about them.

I’m hesitant to go with anything that isn’t compatible with KeePass database files, but there just doesn’t seem to be anything good that works with KeePass on the iPad. If I decide to go with a different program, I’ll have to decide whether I want to switch over completely to that program (on Windows, Mac, and iPad), or just use it as a supplement to KeePass, and keep copies of my most frequently used accounts in there.

more iPad notes

I’m home sick today, so I might as well write a blog post on some iPad stuff, following up on my last post.

My Marware Evo-Vue case arrived in the mail yesterday. It’s well-made and fits the iPad well.

I bought Satchel, and have used it to update my Backpack account a few times already. It works well. There are a few interface quirks, but nothing big. I wish it had the ability to detach a file from a Backpack page, and send it to GoodReader though. I’m really liking GoodReader. It’s easy to get files into it (from a computer via wifi, or from Google Docs, or GMail, or MobileMe…) and it works well as a PDF reader and file management tool.

The one other app I’m thinking about buying is PrintCentral. I don’t really need to be able to print from the iPad, but it would be nice.

iPad

So I succumbed to peer pressure and got an iPad. I reserved it on Saturday and picked it up on Monday. It’s the 32GB 3G model.

Surprisingly, the unlimited data plan from AT&T was still available (even though it was supposed to disappear last week, I think), so I went ahead and signed up for that. I don’t know if I’ll keep the data plan turned on; I may only need it occasionally.

I haven’t found a killer app for the iPad yet. Nothing I’ve played with so far really makes me think, “yeah, I needed one of these.” I’ve been using an app called FrontPocket on my iPod Touch to access my Backpack account. I checked to see if there was an iPad-specific version of FrontPocket out, and was surprised to see that the app appears to be discontinued entirely. It’s no longer in the app store, and there’s no mention of it on the developer’s web site anymore. There is, however, a new app for accessing Backpack from another developer, and they have an iPad-specific version. It’s called Satchel and it’s from Stand Alone Software. If I remember correctly, these guys have been around since the days of the Newton. (I vaguely recall using one of their apps on my Newton, but I don’t remember what it was.) So, I’m probably going to download that and give it a whirl. I don’t know if that’ll be my “killer app”, but maybe it’ll be useful.

Oh, and I ordered an Eco-View case from Marware. As usual with these things, I spent far too much time looking at cases on the web. If they’d had the standard Apple case in stock when I picked up my iPad, I probably would have settled for that. But they had *no* cases in stock at all, so I went nuts on the web, and decided that this one looked good.