The other day, I was showing off 1Password, one of the apps that I use most frequently on OS X, to a friend. I was subsequently surprised to discover that I’ve apparently never actually reviewed it on my blog. Well, actually, that’s partially true: I reviewed it back in 2006, when it was still called 1Passwd and wasn’t that good, but that post no longer appears on here (since I recently cleared out my fairly lame old posts from before January 2007). In fact, the only real mention that I have of it on this blog was its awesome iPhone/iPod touch app I reviewed a month ago. However, 1Password has gone through revolutionary changes since I reviewed it in 2006, and now I’ve been using the app for almost a year, and it’s been getting better and better. And so today, I’m going to make things right by reviewing 1Password, the application, today, and tomorrow, I’ll be reviewing a new 1Password service that I have invite-only access to and have been playing around with.

1Password is, to put it lightly, a unified password manager for Mac OS X. No longer do you have to worry about remembering your passwords for different websites (or do like I once did and use the same password on every site you use); 1Password provides a central library for you to store all of your passwords for the sites that you use which is secured within your keychain via a special password that you configure. You can have your keychain remember your 1Password password, or if you want to put an extra bit of security on your passwords, you can require yourself to have to enter your 1Password password every time you want to get access to them.

1Password fully integrates with all of the major Mac OS X web browsers, including Safari, Camino, Firefox, OmniWeb, DEVONagent, NetNewsWire, WebKit (the bleeding-edge, open source development version of Safari), and Fluid, whatever that is. For most browsers, this consists of adding a “1P” toolbar button to the browser (and what’s really cool is that 1Password automatically optimizes the design of the toolbar button to match the browser you’re using), which pops up a menu giving you access to various 1Password options without the need to have 1Password open. (You will, however, want to open 1Password every so often, however, so that its auto-updater can run; 1Password is frequently updated with new features.) Safari and Firefox also benefit from additional integration. 1Password auto-installs a Firefox plugin that allows you to display a full-blown 1Password toolbar instead of just the button. Safari enjoys an even cleaner integration with 1Password; 1P adds some items to Safari’s menu, provides the option of adding a full 1Password menu to the menubar, and also replaces the pop-up dialog boxes that it uses in other browsers with an inline browser information panel that looks really nice, if you’re using Safari.

So the integration is nice, but what does it do? Well, when you go to login on a form, or when you register, 1Password asks if you want to save the login or registration information for future use. You can retitle the title of the stored information if you wish (this affects how it’s listed in the 1Password library), click Save, and you’re good. Thereafter, if you go to that page, click on the 1Password toolbar icon, under the Restore Form submenu, the login info that you saved will appear there. Clicking on it will autofill the form and automatically submit the form as well (you can turn autosubmit off in 1Password preferences, though seeing it work is so cool!). Even better, a relatively new way to use this power is through a feature called 1Password Bookmarks. By using a keyboard shortcut (Option-Command-\ by default), a floating 1Password Bookmarks menu will appear, which contains all of your saved passwords in 1Password. You can either search for one of your passwords or choose it from the pop-up menu, and 1Password will navigate to that website, fill in the login form with your details, and submit the login form, all in one step–essentially logging you in automatically. Man, that’s SO cool!

Another aspect to 1Password, however, is that it’s a tool to help you use more secure passwords. Like I said, I used one password across many sites for the longest period of time. I knew that it wasn’t the most secure thing to do, particularly when my password was as short as it was, but that was the only way I was going to remember it. Well, thanks to 1Password and it’s features, I don’t have to rely on my memory as much anymore, meaning that creating strong passwords is much more possible. And 1Password is there to help out. In the 1Password toolbar item, there’s an option called Strong Password Generator. When registering on a form (or filling out a Change of Password form), you can go into the 1Password toolbar icon and choose Strong Password Generator. This brings you a little toolbox where you can generate a strong password, with options for you to set how lengthy it is, whether you want it to be pronouncable (separated by digits, hyphens, or none), a digest password, or a completely random password, with control over how many of the characters should be numerical digits and how many should be symbols. Clicking the Fill button then not only fills the new password into your form, but it also logs the password that you created into a Password History within 1Password, so if you ever lose all other records of that password that you just created, you can go back to 1Password and see what it was. And, of course, 1Password tells you how good your password is, so that you can have a good but pronounceable password for services that are less crucial, and super-random impossible-to-remember (or easily crack) passwords for PayPal, bank accounts, and other important identity-protection-required services.

1Password isn’t just for passwords, either; it allows you to store other bits of information. 1Password allows you to create multiple identities–aggregates of personal information like name, birthday, job info, contact info, etc. Then, when you’re filling out a registration form or a check out form or something like that, you can have 1Password autofill info from one of your identities the same way that it autofills passwords, without you having to go and fill in all that boring stuff yourself. 1Password also allows you to add things called Wallet Items–this is personal information that is so very important that you can keep it securely on hand within 1Password. This could be financial information like Credit Card info or bank account info, membership information for a group that you are a member of, details for certain online services, government certificates and licenses (passport, driver’s license, SSN, etc.), and even software licenses and serial numbers. And lastly, 1Password allows you to add notes–any information that you want, that are secured using the very same secure keychain technologies that 1Password uses to secure all of your passwords, identities, and wallet items. In other words, 1Password turns into like the secure vault that you use to store everything that you need to keep safe in your online life.

All in all, 1Password is like one of those apps that you don’t really think you need until you give it a try, and discover just how useful it can be in your life. If you find yourself trying to remember passwords or looking for a way to keep the information important in your online life secure and accessible, this is the application for you. 1Password is shareware; a single-user license is $34.95, a 5-user family license is $49.95, and educational and business pricing is available. In subsequent reviews coming this weekend, I’ll review two other products from Agile Web Solutions that tie into 1Password and make the app even better.

Final Rating:

Tags: 1Password, Agile Web Solutions, applications, identities, keychain, Mac, passwords, review, security, wallet