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View Full Version : Spb Wallet for iPhone to Secure Your Information


Jeff Campbell
03-03-2009, 04:00 PM
<p>&nbsp;</p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/at/auto/1235771182.usr105634.jpg" /></p><p>&nbsp;</p><h6><strong>Product Category:</strong>&nbsp;Productivity/Security</h6><h6><strong>Manufacturer:</strong>&nbsp;<a href="http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/iphone-software/wallet/" target="_blank">Spb Software</a></h6><h6><strong>Where to Buy:</strong>&nbsp;<a href="http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=303654965&amp;mt=8" target="_blank">iTunes</a></h6><h6><strong>Price:</strong>&nbsp;$9.99&nbsp;USD</h6><h6><strong>System Requirements:</strong>&nbsp;iPhone or iPod Touch, requires 2.0 Software Update</h6><h6></h6><p><strong>Pros:</strong></p><ul><li>Security for your sensitive information;</li><li>Abundant selection of customizable cards tailored to what is in your wallet;</li><li>Portrait or landscape viewing simple by turning your iPhone/iPod Touch;</li><li>Access websites and auto-fill secure fields with one touch.</li></ul><p><strong>Cons:</strong></p><ul><li>No OS X interface for desktop;</li><li>Sleep mode doesn't make it secure, have to exit to secure data;</li><li>Backup sync only functional with Windows not OS X.</li></ul><p><strong>Summary:</strong>&nbsp;There are several applications in the iTunes store for securing your credit cards and other sensitive information, but this one takes security and functionality to a new level.</p><h1><MORE /><strong>Secure Your Sensitive Information</strong></h1><p>If you are like me, you keep some or all of your sensitive information on your iPhone &nbsp;such as credit card info, log on info for banking site, etc. If you want to secure that information, this is a good choice.<img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/at/auto/1235872501.usr105634.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p><em>Figure 1: There are many kinds of information to secure and you can pick many of them from Spb Wallet.</em></p><p>Security is always a concern, especially now with the proliferation of so many mobile devices that can store sensitive information.&nbsp;I normally use <a href="http://agilewebsolutions.com/products/1Password" target="_blank">1Password</a> for my laptop, and since they came out with an <a href="http://www.apple.com/iphone/" target="_blank">iPhone</a>/iPod Touch application for it, it has become one of my go to apps that I use on a daily basis. However, Spb Wallet is an application that may take its place to access my information because of the customization features, and the interface it uses to interact with the user.&nbsp;</p><p>Spb Wallet addresses security concerns by using 256-bit AES encryption. You can also customize the time for auto-lockout, choose what information to put in hidden fields and also has double password protection to access the information.</p><p>One downside to this application however, is that there is not an <a href="http://www.apple.com/macosx/" target="_blank">OS X</a> interface, only a <a href="http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/wallet/" target="_blank">Windows interface</a> for entering data and syncing your iPhone/iPod Touch. This review will only discuss the iPhone/iPod Touch aspect of the program and the syncing with <a href="http://www.gmail.com" target="_blank">Gmail</a>, since I do not use a windows machine except for work, and I do not have the capability to test that aspect of the program.</p><h1><MORE />Entering Your Data&nbsp;</h1><p>Since I don't use <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/default.aspx" target="_blank">Windows</a>, I had to enter the data via the iPhone, and it was easy and pain-free.</p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/at/auto/1235863287.usr105634.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/at/auto/1235863275.usr105634.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p><em>Figure 2: Creating your "wallet" and the entry screen for your new wallet.</em></p><p>Creating the wallet is done as soon as you start the program for the first time. Give it a name, give it a master password, and add a password hint in case you are old like me and sometimes forget things. When that is done, as soon as you start the program, it will display your wallet choices (you can create multiple wallets each with it's own password). Select your wallet then start entering the information you want to keep secure. Double password requirement is a nice touch and adds to the security of the application</p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/at/auto/1235867305.usr105634.jpg" /></p><p><em>Figure 3: The main wallet screen with your information categories.</em>&nbsp;</p><p>You can edit this screen, adding or deleting categories as you see fit. Once that is done you can go to each category and add individual accounts. Simple as that.</p><h1><MORE />Entering Your Data (Continued)</h1><p>Entering credit cards, or any other card for that matter, is done from the edit screen that also allows to customize the display and add many different fields.</p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/at/auto/1235868901.usr105634.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p><em>Figure 4: The credit card entry screen.&nbsp;</em></p><p>Once you are in edit mode, you enter all the information, in this case, about your credit card. The lists is very complete and scrolls down so you can add company name, company website, user name for the website, password, phone numbers, etc. Being as thorough as possible here will add to the functionality of Spb Wallet.</p><p>The cool thing about this, at least the visually cool thing, is that in the templates section, you can pick a graphic type that actually looks like the card you are entering. So if you are entering a Visa card, pick the Visa template and when all the information is entered, the graphic will have all of your information such as credit card number, bank number and your name on the card that is displayed. It is during this selection process that it can get confusing. Credit cards are not in the normal "Cards" section, they have their own section in the templates for "Credit Cards". But once you have found this once it is easy to find. A minor problem to be sure and doesn't take away from the functionality in my opinion.</p><p>I've only gone over entering credit cards, but there are so many more types of data you can enter such as membership cards, internet settings, computer passwords, security system information and the list goes on and on. This is one of the most complete programs as far as the type of data you can secure that I have ever used.&nbsp;</p><p><MORE /><strong></strong></p><h1><strong>Easy to Use</strong></h1><p>Once you have all your information added, accessing it is easy.&nbsp;</p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/at/auto/1235872797.usr105634.jpg" /></p><p><em>Figure 5: Credit card displayed after your information has been added.</em></p><p>Once you open the program and pick the wallet, you get choices of information to access, in a screen as in figure 3 above. If you pick credit cards then it switches you to a list of your credit cards, and once you select a card it displays as in figure 5. You can look at it in either landscape or panorama mode since the program uses the built-in functionality of the iPhone/iPod Touch <a href="http://www.apple.com/iphone/features/accelerometer.html" target="_blank">accelerometer</a>, and it allows you to sort through the cards simply by sliding your finger across the screen to move back and forth between the cards.</p><p>If you entered website information or telephone information for the particular card, you can access that as well. Touch the website address and go right to the website with Safari, with the choice to autofill your user ID and password if you prefer. This is very handy feature! To give them a call, touch the phone number and you switch to phone mode. If it is information that is from a personal contact, you have the option to go to SMS mode. Very slick!&nbsp;</p><p>The only major problem I found with this program is that if I leave the information displayed and my iPhone goes into sleep mode, as soon as I slide to unlock, it goes right to the last page I was on. It would be a more secure feature to make you enter your passwords again, but on the other hand it was convenient not to have to go through the password process while I was in the program and I got distracted and the iPhone went to sleep. As long as you remember to exit from the program when you are done, it shouldn't be a problem. Small caveat but important nonetheless.</p><h1><MORE />Sync Your Data With G-mail</h1><p>Since I don't use Windows, I don't have the ability to sync with a desktop interface, but that doesn't mean I'm out of luck if I want to save all the data I have just entered. The good folks at Spb Software have provided an option to sync the data with a Gmail account.&nbsp;</p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/at/auto/1235926154.usr105634.jpg" /><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/at/auto/1235927276.usr105634.jpg" /></p><p>Once you have a Gmail account set up, you can send yourself a file that has all of the information from your wallet. Basically a backup file that you can use to restore your data should something happen and the backup done via iTunes was corrupted for example. The problem with this is that you need to have desktop version to restore your data, and that is only available on Windows.&nbsp;</p><h1><strong>Conclusion</strong></h1><p>Overall I loved this program because of its customizability with 60+ predefined templates and an online template gallery of 7,000+ cards. You have to be a little more careful making sure that the program is closed out before you are truly secure, but I normally do that anyway so it isn't that big of a deal to me. It is definitely worth a look, especially if you are using a windows machine, due to the syncing option with a desktop version. I'm hoping they will be coming out with an OS X version for the desktop, but even without that, I'm going to be using this as a easy and secure way to quickly get to information that I need to keep handy.</p><p><em>Jeff Campbell is a fan of all things Apple, an X-boxer (the 360 kind) and geek. He works as a floor supervisor in a 911 Center in the Portland, OR Metro area, and lives in a small town just south of Mt. Hood with his wife, two kids and the required two dogs.</em></p><p>&nbsp;</p>

ptyork
03-03-2009, 09:41 PM
Okay, so help me out here. This seems to be of exceedingly limited value on this particular device. On other devices, web site passwords can be remembered and synced. CC info can be automatically sent to a browser to complete a mobile transaction. Confirmation numbers and such can be easily selected from a web page or email and added to the "wallet". Etc. But on the iPod/iPhone, this is not possible. Then, is this just a database of sensitive information? Seems a) not terribly useful and b) somewhat dangerous. Yeah, you can look at a UID and password and then switch to the browser and use it to log in (or vice versa when storing a new UID / PWD), but that is easily fifteen clicks and a minute of your time. Anyway, perhaps of some use to some, but seems quite crippled in this case.

ptyork
03-04-2009, 05:13 AM
Jeff,

I read the pros section of your post a little more closely:

* Access websites and auto-fill secure fields with one touch

I'm intrigued by this since theoretically it should not be possible. You didn't give an example of this in use (how to set it up...how it works). I see from the SPB site that this looks to be supported, at least for UID/PWD, but they don't really show it in action either. Could you expand on this a bit? Does it just support clicking a site and automatically logging in, or does it perform some other strange magic to also support entering CC info, shipping address, etc.? Do you know HOW it does this? Does it work for all sites or only those with a specific field names the text boxes? The only way I could think of this working is if it sent the UID and PWD as part of the URL string--"https://www.mysite.com/login.aspx?user=asdljf,password=alsdf,redir=account.aspx"--which would be exceedingly insecure. If it is more magical than this and supports a tighter integration with Safari than I had thought possible, then obviously it would take a little bit of the bite out of my previous comment. :)

Thanks.

Jeff Campbell
03-04-2009, 07:57 AM
Jeff,

I read the pros section of your post a little more closely:

* Access websites and auto-fill secure fields with one touch

I'm intrigued by this since theoretically it should not be possible. You didn't give an example of this in use (how to set it up...how it works). I see from the SPB site that this looks to be supported, at least for UID/PWD, but they don't really show it in action either. Could you expand on this a bit? Does it just support clicking a site and automatically logging in, or does it perform some other strange magic to also support entering CC info, shipping address, etc.? Do you know HOW it does this? Does it work for all sites or only those with a specific field names the text boxes? The only way I could think of this working is if it sent the UID and PWD as part of the URL string--"https://www.mysite.com/login.aspx?user=asdljf,password=alsdf,redir=account.aspx"--which would be exceedingly insecure. If it is more magical than this and supports a tighter integration with Safari than I had thought possible, then obviously it would take a little bit of the bite out of my previous comment. :)

Thanks.

It actually does work as simply as filling out the id and password for you so you can log on. For example, on a hotmail account I added under "computer", I entered the website address, my ID and my password (there are many other sections you can fill out if you choose) then saved it in my wallet. So if I go back into my wallet I select computers, then select hotmail, and it brings up a screen with the website address, my ID and my password (starred out, but it will display if you touch it). All I have to do it touch the website address and it brings up another screen asking me if I want to log in with Safari or open with Auto-Fill. If I select Safari it opens up to the website in Safari without logging me in. If I choose autofill it opens up the website within the program in their own type of browser and also logs me in, pretty seamlessly.

The program is very customizable and you can add a ton of information into it, granted no syncing with OS X which would make data entry easier, but I have pretty much added all the sites into it that I visit on my iPhone that require ID's and passwords, as well as credit card logins and have been very happy with it.

Jeff Campbell
03-04-2009, 06:52 PM
One thing I touched on in the review but wasn't explained in great detail was backup. All of your data is backed up via the normal iphone backup in iTunes so you have it there.

An additional backup is provided via the google sync. When you do this you will notice a special Spb Wallet label in your gmail and you can find all of your backups there with the date and time they are backed up.

Jeff