Get a Finger on your Passwords

If you're anything like me, you probably have passwords set up for several hundred accounts, web pages, payment cards and suchlike. All have different rules regarding password composition, some use emails as usernames, others need non-email usernames, and some make you change passwords on a regular basis. All of which makes managing accounts a complete nightmare unless you break the cardnial rule of security management and write everything down! Or use some software to help you.

I've used 1Password on my Macs to manage all my 'secrets' since it was first released, and have all those secrets synced onto my iOS devices (although I find 1Password on iOS a pain in the backside to use because of Apple's rules on how apps are allowed to play with each other).

It'll be interesting to see the fate of 1Password with the release of Mavericks later in the year when Keychain for iCloud takes centre stage. Of course, 1Password will continue to have a place for folk using earlier versions of OS X, but I can see a slew of software tools disappearing as Mavericks incorporates their ideas and functionality (TotalFinder, Tags, Punkanea are others that spring instantly to mind). Such is progress but resilient developers will find other opportunities to tout their talents and skills.

In fact 1Password may well continue to exist and flourish under Mavericks, simply because not everyone will want to trust all their most confidential information and data to Apple. Even I have reservations about moving to Keychain for iCloud until the technology is more established and initial bugs ironed out. I simply can't afford to have a situation where OS X has generated passwords (which I can't remember) and which I might not be able to access because of an iCloud glitch. I could indeed see a situation where I will use 1Password as a failsafe backup system, but we shall see. Experiences with iMatch for iTunes make me a little wary about failsafe syncronisation...

There has been quite a lot of noise recently about Apple using fingerprint security on new versions of the iPhone and iPad. The noises started to get louder when Apple bought Authentec (reportedly for $356M in 2012), who make fingerprint scanners and the accompanying TrueSuite software package.

I bought a pair of Upek scanners last year and use them alongside TrueSuite for OS X. Previously, prior to becoming a fully fledged Mac user, I used the Microsoft fingerprint scanner for Windows and was really pleased with the way it worked. That experience is now shared on the Mac - there is something reassuring about using a physical method to access my passwords which doesn't involve me having to remember anything. Of course this type of security is illusory since as soon as the fingerprint scanner is removed anyone who can type (as knows what the passwords are) can access the system.

UPEK Fingerprint Scanner

I'm sure much will be written about KeyChain for iCloud in the next few months and especially after its universal release, and I look forward to playing with it myself. In the meantime I have one request to website designers and businesses - if you don't need to put password access to your websites please don't. Having to remember a gazillion passwords is bad enough - having to remember them when there's nothing to protect is just mean!

Nails in the Coffin for RSI

I have over 750 applications stored on my iMac. Of these probably only about 40 or 50 are used on a regular basis and these are probably the same ones that 90% of the Mac community use. There are my Office apps (MS Office, iWork, Mail), my Web apps (MarsEdit, RapidWeaver. Cyberduck), Project Management apps (Merlin, Curio), Writing apps (Ulysses, Scrivener), Communications (Safari, Tweetbot, MenuTab for Facebook, Facetime), Photo apps (iPhoto, Aperture, Photoshop), and Music apps (iTunes, CoverSutra). Then there are the utilities and 'productivity' enhancers and I'm guessing these probably account for half the items in the Applications folder. I have written about Alfred and Bartender specially in the past, but there are dozens more.

I like playing with new toys, which is what many of these apps are. And like lots of toys, after the initial excitement wears off, they get put in the cupboard and rarely see the light of day again. Once of the first things I'm going to do once I've installed Mavericks is to go through all my apps and work out whether they should have a 'cupboard' tag attached and then archive those that do. Or zap them (AppZap is a great utility that I don't use enough!).

But I'm always on the look out for new toys and yesterday I found two, from the same independent developer, Marc Moini. The first is called AppStore QuickView which is so simple but makes browsing the Mac App Store so much easier. Once it's running AppStore QuickView launches a window in which you can see all the information about any app in the Mac App Store that your mouse is hovering over. So it saves you having to click in and out of items in the store - a great time saver.

App Store with AppStore QuickView window (greyed)

Better still, using AppStore QuickView overcomes one of my real niggles about the Mac App Store. Currently if you are looking at any selection or category which runs over multiple pages, clicking on an app on, say page 3, and then returning will take you back to page 1. This is irritating and time consuming and poor interface design behaviour (and really should have made it into my top 6 bugs from my previous post). But because AppStore QuickView dispenses with the need to click on the item, you never lose your place. Neat.

The second of Marc's offerings is called Smart Scroll. I was a little sceptical when I first saw this but after trying it I've become hooked. Smart Scroll, as the name suggests enhances the scroll function in a variety of ways. Hover Scroll and Auto Scroll are my favourites, but I've still got some investigation to do regarding the other modes.

The Hover Scroll allows you to position the cursor towards the bottom of a scrollable window and then automatically scrolls the contents of the window at a speed you preset. The clever thing is that you can change the scroll speed by moving the cursor closer or further from the bottom of the window. I find this ideal for things like Tweetbot (or any other Twitter client) but brilliant in any application where you are dealing with long documents or web pages.

Auto Scroll only works (currently) with Safari Reader, Preview, QuickLook and Skim). Auto Scroll is initiated by pressing the Option (⌥) key and you change the speed with the right and left cursor keys.

There is a huge amount of control offered within the program. Just about any setting can be pre-set and finely tuned through the Preference Pane, even allowing specific settings for individual apps.

A word of warning - there is a version of Smart Scroll in the Mac App Store called Scroll+ but this doesn't include the Auto Scroll mode or allow as much flexibility. Go to the developer's site directly for the full uncompromised version.

Both apps are available on an evaluation basis so you can try them out first. It didn't take me long to get the licenses for both. On a one user/many computers basis the cost was a little over £20 including tax.

Both these utilities are nails in the coffin for RSI. Thanks Marc!