1Password 3 Holds All Your Keys

/

1Password IconI’ve been using 1Password by Agile Web Solutions for about a year thanks to my friend Samantha gifting a license to me during Agile’s Thanksgiving gifting program last year. Well, for the past 9 months or so, the team at Agile has been giving 1Password the biggest overhaul in the software’s history.

Since late August I’ve been beta-testing 1Password 3, which I am glad to tell you has been released for the masses today. If you are a Mac user, 1Password is a must-have application. It generates secure passwords for your web presence, and stores them all in a secure database that can be unlocked by your, well, one password you’ll never forget.

Too often I see people that use a word that can be found in the dictionary as their password (which means easily hacked) and then they use it everywhere. Even for their financial accounts online. This is a terrible practice that I even used to use.

Well, 1Password 3 has refined the user interface greatly from previous versions. Now everything is separated into different vaults, so you can easily access your logins, accounts, identities, secure notes, software licenses, and wallet. This program tracks everything for your digital life.

What I have found to be the most helpful is the web browser plugin. Whether you use Safari, Firefox, Camino, etc. (Chrome is in the works) you can easily have the plugin fill in user and password fields for you. Or if you need to fill in your credit card and billing address info for a merchant, the plugin will do it all in a couple clicks. The credit card info is very helpful for changing your info for many merchants when you receive a new card every couple years.

1Password 3 offers many enhancements for users of version 2, and is inescapably attractive for new users. This should be the first download for any Mac.

1Password 3 is available for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard and 10.6 Snow Leopard. It costs $39.95 for a new license and users of version 2 may upgrade for $19.95 (until Nov. 30, 2009, then the price raises to $29.95).

For a complete list of what’s new, check out this page.