Windows Phone Thoughts: Organize Your Identity Securely with SplashID

Installation
There is nothing complicated in installing SplashID. The installer sets up the included SplashID desktop program and installs the program on your Pocket PC. Also, a SplashID sync conduit is installed in ActiveSync. This allows for SplashID to perform record for record syncing!

Users of eWallet, FlexWallet, CodeWallet, and other wallet programs, know that these programs are limited to syncing the individual “wallet” file. Although this syncing solution is fine for most cases, users can run into a brick wall if they make changes to both the Pocket PC and the desktop without syncing. SplashID is the first Pocket PC application to support record for record syncing. Now, you can make changes on both your desktop and Pocket PC SplashID wallet. When you sync, SplashID will synchronize the wallets together just like how your calendar or contacts are synchronized. This feature blew me away! Kudos to Splash Data for taking the time to sit down and solve a difficult problem!


Figure 1: SplashID, which supports record syncing, installs a conduit in Activesync.

The Desktop Interface
SplashID includes a desktop program in the $19.95 price. The program makes data entry easy with its simple and intuitive interface.


Figure 2: The desktop interface is very appealing to the eye.

Like other Pocket PC wallet applications, SplashID makes use of the familiar “card” analogy. For those of you who have large wallets, SplashID allows you to arrange your cards into categories. I set up two categories, a “Personal” category and a “Work” category. Unlike Two Peak’s Flexwallet, SplashID doesn’t support subcategories. However, I personally think that this makes the program more intuitive, but that is a personal preference.

Creating a card is easy. Clicking the “New..” button displays a dialog box with six fields for data. You can assign a category to a card in this menu. Also, you can quickly customize the fields of the card by selecting a “type.” SplashID comes with over 15 types, including a “Credit Card” type and a “Memberships” type. If you don’t select a type, the fields will be named the default “Field N:”, where N is a number from 1 to 6.


Figure 3: Creating a new card.

Here, I’m creating a card of type “Web Logins” and category “Work” for my new gmail account. Note that this is fake data, so don’t try to log into gmail with this data! Entering data is fairly straightforward.

Notice that the password field has a black “dot” next to it. This means that the field is a masked field, and will be masked in the card. Sometimes, I have trouble thinking of good passwords; it’s probably because I’m not a very creative person. SplashID allows for me to stay uncreative by generating passwords with a “password generator.” You can specify the size of the password, what symbols are allowed, and whether the password should be pronounceable. I found that this method is very effective at creating new, unique passwords.


Figure 4: The password generator can help in creating unique passwords that you will remember.

The interface displays a list of your cards on the left with card detail on the left. URLs are clickable and load in your default browser. You can narrow the cards displayed in the list by selecting a “Category” or a “Type.” When “All Types” is selected, the field labels are marked “Field 1”, “Field 2”, and so on. When you select a specific type, the category labels change to the field names of the selected type.

All in all, I found the desktop interface to be very intuitive, clean, and useful.