So I’ve been on a geek streak this week. This was all kicked off by the announcements at Apple’s WWDC and the beta releases of iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks. Because I’ve done some swapping around of devices and testing of this new software, I’ve had occasion to reload my iPhone 5 from scratch.
Somewhere in one of my geek articles I talked about the importance of using really good passwords for your computer endeavors. Long gone are the days where you could use the clever password of Secret (complete with capital “S”!), today you have to have a whole bunch of random characters mashed together to make something that you can remember but also can not be easily guessed.
Enter 1Password from AgileBits
1Password creates really secure passwords for you and better yet, it remembers them for you so you don’t have to worry about typing a password like h8!UU1m2^CeT into your favorite web browser, just so you can take a peek at Facebook. It stores your secure password under a master password (that you can remember) so all of your online information is doubly secure. Better yet, 1Password can sync between your laptop/desktop and mobile devices so that you have access to these hardened passwords on whatever device you might be using.
Earl and I set up his 1Password information earlier this evening and just before writing this blog entry I got all my information set up for my personal devices. It’s wicked easy and it’s money well spent, especially if you spend a lot of time online and/or you’ve put a lot of information out there.
This solution is MUCH better than writing a password down and sticking it to the side of your monitor on a sticky note or using the same password for all over your accounts.
I don’t get any kickback from talking about the folks at AgileBits, I’m just one satisfied customer. And if I can spread a little love and knowledge in the geek world, I’m going to do it.
I suggest you give 1Password a try.
For some reason in the long ago, there was a reason that I can’t remember as to why, but I didn’t like 1Password. I have been using a product called DataVault by Ascendo that does very much the same thing.
I go hot and cold with 1Password. The one thing that I don’t like about it is that it is very intrusive when I’m using Safari on my Mac. It wants my password all the time and it’s always saying “store this password? store this password?”. It should be able to look at the domain of the site in question and know that I have already stored a password for that domain.