At Macworld this week, Ars Technica spoke with Agile Web Solutions and received a sneak peek at a clever iPhone feature coming to 1Password, the company’s form filler and identity manager for the Mac.
As we saw back in October, 1Password is able to create a secure, encrypted, and password-protected bookmarklet for the iPhone (yes, the iPod touch, too) that contains all of your password and identity information stored in 1Password. While this is certainly a handy reference when on the go, this new feature we saw today will be able to use this information to automatically fill forms and sign users into web sites on the iPhone. This is accomplished with another bookmarklet 1Password creates that matches the current tab in MobileSafari to any of your identity information stored for that site, then auto-submits it (if you want). If multiple accounts are found for the current site, you’ll see the JavaScript pop-up we have pictured, allowing you to select one of the accounts. To maintain security, however, your master 1Password login is still requested (just like with the aforementioned reference bookmarklet), protecting your account information even if your phone gets stolen.
In the demo that Agile Web Solutions’ Dave Teare gave me, this feature worked really well for filling forms on the iPhone. Like 1Password itself, it made me ask “why didn’t Apple do this itself?” The bookmarklet was snappy, and filling forms seemed about as instant as it could be. Even if most users don’t have multiple accounts for many sites, MobileSafari’s flaky cache and cookie management makes this feature incredibly appealing. As for when the new version that can create this bookmarklet ships, Teare’s hoping to add the polishing touches and get it out within the week.
In addition to current features like working with nearly any browser you can throw at it (including NetNewsWire and even Flock), saving/filling identity and even credit card information (securely and encrypted, of course), and creating multi-account bookmarklets for web sites, 1Password will likely sell a good number of licenses based on this feature alone. In fact, 1Password typically sells for $29.95 on its own, but it’s also bundled in MacHeist II for another week, making it a no-brainer if you need just one or two other apps in the collection.
Of course, you’ll probably want to try 1Password before you buy it from any store, so you can pick up a copy at Agile Web Solutions’ download page. 1Password requires Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger or 10.5 Leopard.
As we saw back in October, 1Password is able to create a secure, encrypted, and password-protected bookmarklet for the iPhone (yes, the iPod touch, too) that contains all of your password and identity information stored in 1Password. While this is certainly a handy reference when on the go, this new feature we saw today will be able to use this information to automatically fill forms and sign users into web sites on the iPhone. This is accomplished with another bookmarklet 1Password creates that matches the current tab in MobileSafari to any of your identity information stored for that site, then auto-submits it (if you want). If multiple accounts are found for the current site, you’ll see the JavaScript pop-up we have pictured, allowing you to select one of the accounts. To maintain security, however, your master 1Password login is still requested (just like with the aforementioned reference bookmarklet), protecting your account information even if your phone gets stolen.
In the demo that Agile Web Solutions’ Dave Teare gave me, this feature worked really well for filling forms on the iPhone. Like 1Password itself, it made me ask “why didn’t Apple do this itself?” The bookmarklet was snappy, and filling forms seemed about as instant as it could be. Even if most users don’t have multiple accounts for many sites, MobileSafari’s flaky cache and cookie management makes this feature incredibly appealing. As for when the new version that can create this bookmarklet ships, Teare’s hoping to add the polishing touches and get it out within the week.
In addition to current features like working with nearly any browser you can throw at it (including NetNewsWire and even Flock), saving/filling identity and even credit card information (securely and encrypted, of course), and creating multi-account bookmarklets for web sites, 1Password will likely sell a good number of licenses based on this feature alone. In fact, 1Password typically sells for $29.95 on its own, but it’s also bundled in MacHeist II for another week, making it a no-brainer if you need just one or two other apps in the collection.
Of course, you’ll probably want to try 1Password before you buy it from any store, so you can pick up a copy at Agile Web Solutions’ download page. 1Password requires Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger or 10.5 Leopard.
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