Thursday, March 26, 2009

SplashID for iPhone review

From iPhoneApplicationList:

It's one of the biggest headaches of the modern world, and yet there seem to be relatively few tools that really help. I'm talking about data security, specifically your private data: the PINs, the account numbers, the serial numbers, the passwords, of which most of us have several hundred. Some people get by by writing these things on 'bits of paper'. Others put it all in plain text in their Contacts. But you, the informed power user, can manage your data properly AND keep it safe from prying eyes. At least, you can, now that you've got SplashID.

Now there are plenty of so-called secure database utilities. Applications that let you enter data and encrypt it from others. So far so good. But are you really going to sit there typing ALL your private information into your phone? I thought not. For an average user, with hundreds of private entries, the only practical solution is to enter the data in the first place over on your desktop PC or Mac, either by typing on your full sized keyboard, by pasting text in from other sources, or by direct import from another desktop database system. And here comes the crunch. You now need to sync this all over to your iPhone or iPod Touch.

This is the point where most secure utilities fall down - they exist only on the phone. Or only on the desktop. But SplashID scores heavily by existing on both, and with a foolproof 'sync over Wi-Fi' feature. Of course, you can still enter new entries or amend existing ones on the phone - all changes get synced seamlessly over to the desktop version on your next sync. Kicking off such a sync is as easy as tapping on its front screen icon. It's immediate too, as your desktop is scanned for, found via Wi-Fi and data from the Desktop version of SplashID used to sync with.

Sticking to the iPhone style guide, only four functions are on the main SplashID toolbar, with SplashData deciding to hide everything else behind a 'Tools' button - this makes sense and you shouldn't need to delve into this part of the interface very often. The standard toolbar offers Search, Add, Lock and Sync, certainly the four things you'll use most often.

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