Windows Phone Thoughts: Organize Your Identity Securely with SplashID

Security
This is an area where SplashID shines. SplashData, unlike the other Pocket PC competitors, uses 256bit Blowfish encryption, which translates to a very secure method for storing important information. The competitors use 128 bit encryption, which is arguably secure enough for most people. It never hurts, however, to have extra strong encryption; users who have been waiting for a more secure wallet solution should definitely turn to SplashID.

SplashID supports numeric and alphanumeric passwords. I personally prefer numeric passwords since they make retrieving information faster and easier.

Entering a numeric password is slightly annoying with SplashID, however. The buttons are nice and large, but there is nothing on the screen to let you know how many keys you have pressed. Sometimes, you might accidentally hit a key twice or not at all. A user wouldn’t know if he made a mistake since SplashID provides no feedback. It would be nice to have either a “number counter” which shows you how many digits you’ve typed or the standard “masked password” view. Surprisingly, however, I found that I rarely entered a wrong password.


Figure 9: The numeric password view does not provide feedback as you type.

Both the handheld and desktop versions of SplashID can be set to “auto-lock” after a certain number of minutes. This adds extra security to protect your valuable data.

Import and Export Your Life
eWallet users can import their data straight into SplashID. I imported my own eWallet wallet into SplashID, and most of the cards imported just fine. SplashID parsed some cards incorrectly, but having the ability to import even just 90% of your cards can be a major time saver. Also, SplashID can import many other formats, including comma separated files (CSV). In addition to being able to import data, SplashID can export your data for backup purposes.

Weaknesses
There’s really only one weakness that bothers me, and that’s the limitation that all cards can contain a maximum of six fields plus a note field. I prefer the flexibility of the other Pocket PC wallet programs that can handle a variable number of fields per type. This is useful for things like bank accounts and health insurance cards that have a lot of information stored on a card. I hope that SplashData will introduce the ability to have a variable number of fields per type in a future version.

Conclusion
All in all, SplashID is truly a great wallet and identification program. It’s the first Pocket PC wallet program to support record for record syncing, which in itself is worth a thousand chocolate bars. Also, the program is simple and intuitive, has great security features, and most importantly, is backed by one of the most well known developers for the Palm OS platform. This release from SplashData clearly indicates that they are committed to the Pocket PC. So if you’ve been waiting for a wallet program that supports record for record syncing, this is the program for you!