Filed under: Software, Reviews
Sneak Peek: 1Password 3.0 + secret beta-enabler tweak
As Christina mentioned a while ago, 1Password version 3 is on the horizon, and we've got some sneak peeks to show you. There are some great improvements to the core, but more immediately noticeable are the visual tweaks to the interface. The entire UI has been overhauled, and I'm impressed. Take a look at the gallery to see for yourself. Oh, and check the end of the post if you missed out on the private beta but want to play with version 3 on your machine!
Haven't heard of 1Password? It's a form-filling, password-storing, iPhone-syncing, highly-secure information storage system. It handles software licenses, secure notes, credit cards and, of course, passwords. It can generate impossible-to-crack passwords on-the-fly, and then remember them for you. All you have to remember is, that's right, one password. Get it?
Read on for a quick walkthrough of new 1Password features, and a little trick to get your hands on it early ...
My favorite UI tweak is the addition of login thumbnails. 1Password will create an icon for each login, and a thumbnail that gets "clipped" to its full view. The icon generation is impressively intelligent, using favicons if they exist, and then scanning down a list of possible elements to capture for the icon. Very nice. Generating the thumbnails can, as you'd expect, take a while (about 2.5 hours for my 1048 logins). I'm told that things like this will be very automated in the final release, but for right now you need to go to Help->Tools->Download Login Thumbs to get things started. You'll see a progress bar and icons begin appearing.
I noticed that the thumbnail storage was being handled in my Agile Keychain, which I had been told previously was one of the many reasons for the new format. The developers confirmed that 1Password 3 will require the Agile format, but converting is a simple click away in Preferences/Keychain.
1Password version 3 has been in private beta for a while now, and those who didn't get in may be getting antsy. Guess what? There's a backdoor to enable the new UI features, and TUAW is merrily handing out the key!
It started with an anonymous tip about a hidden Terminal command, and I contacted the developers to get their thoughts on the matter. They agreed that, since it would get out eventually, I could distribute this information -- with a few caveats.
First, anyone who chooses to play with this should know that they're not receiving support from the developers, and that Agile won't be accepting feature requests or bug reports from people not in the private beta. Second -- and I really think this should go without saying -- this is a beta, so back up your data before diving in. Beyond that, have a blast. Here's the command, just quit 1Password, paste it into Terminal and press enter, then when you relaunch you'll have the version 3 feature set:
defaults write com.1passwd DevFeaturesUI 1
1Password 3 will require Leopard or Snow Leopard. Fair warning: as noted in Christina's earlier post on the matter, this next version will -- unless you bought yours after February 1, 2009 -- be a paid upgrade (even for semi-illicit beta testers). We're not sure how much yet, but don't let that stop you from having fun right now!
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
sjshaw said 4:19PM on 7-31-2009
I love 1Password, but I hope their upgrade pricing is reasonable. I'm not going to pay through the nose for UI tweaks and tags.
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David Teare said 4:57PM on 7-31-2009
Don't worry, we will not make you pay through the nose! Plus, there is a heck of a lot more in 3.0 than a gorgeous new UI and tags. Needless to say, this easter egg is does not contain the whole release :)
Cheers!
--Dave Teare
Co-author of 1Password
raj said 4:20PM on 7-31-2009
thanks a ton! this is awesome!
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Blaktornado said 4:20PM on 7-31-2009
I love 1Password. This looks like a great update! I certainly hope it doesn't cost too much though. With things like SL and iPhone phone bills that so many of us have to worry about, it may be too difficult to afford to upgrade, which would be a GREAT shame.
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redking31591 said 4:23PM on 7-31-2009
I love 1Password and I don't know what I would do without it. It is a great program and I can't wait for version 3.0
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redking31591 said 4:24PM on 7-31-2009
Oh and I was so happy when I found out since I got it the first of March that I get a free upgrade. YEAH!!
Joe said 4:29PM on 7-31-2009
This looks really slick. I am really close to dumping Wallet for 1Password. I have been waiting for a while now for them to update their iPhone app to include autofill. The desktop app has some bugs that drive me nuts. The dev won't answer email, and I am thinking (like info.xhead did before Wallet) that updates are never going to happen. It is really sad because I like the interface...
Any other frustrated Wallet users out there?
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David said 4:40PM on 7-31-2009
Yes Wallet really drives me nuts too! First of all I can get it to sync with Mobile Me and second; why does search not seem to work at all? I thought search would be relatively simple to get right.
I must say 1Passwords UI design are some of the best I'v seen, can't wait to try out the new version!
David Teare said 4:34PM on 7-31-2009
Well, the cat is finally out of the bag! I'm actually surprised that this easter egg stayed a secret for as long as it did, but Brett eventually found out and he was so excited to blog it I couldn't say no :)
I hope everyone loves the new look as much as Brett!
As for upgrade pricing, we will be announcing that very soon. What I can say is existing license holders will get a very significant discount for the 3.0 upgrade. I am sure you'll find the price too good to say no to :)
Cheers!
--Dave Teare
Co-author of 1Password
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Joseph said 4:45PM on 7-31-2009
You guys are really distancing yourselves from the competition with this upgrade. Keep up the good work!
HTML0000 said 6:26PM on 7-31-2009
It's beautiful. You guys did a great job with the UI.
DaveP said 4:45PM on 7-31-2009
How does this compare with KeePassX?
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Aelver said 7:45PM on 8-02-2009
Mac only ... obviously.
jroth860 said 5:03PM on 7-31-2009
Thanks a lot, really, for the terminal command. I LOVE 3.0!!!
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PSM said 5:03PM on 7-31-2009
Does v.3 offer improved wallet features, like the ability to use other categories besides the handful it comes with in v.2? This is the one thing keeping me from dropping SplashID.
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nathanlil13 said 11:00PM on 7-31-2009
Thumbnails not working
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Robert said 10:41PM on 7-31-2009
I just downloaded 1password to see what I was missing. I'm in need of a password manager so figured 1password was a good place to start. I played with it for an hour and encountered nothing but frustration. Portals with numerous login pages (e.g., Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo xxxx, etc.) didn't log in correctly. After that went to hell, I attempted to set up my various Gmail accounts and found none of the thumbnails worked; nothing but empty outlines where the thumbnails were supposed to go--and despite a dozen attempts to update them under the Tools menu. I also found the perspective of the 3D "shelves" to be inconsistent with the rest of the page. It's as if the authors were trying too hard to make eye candy. Most alarming to me, however, was just how bloated this software is. Activity Monitor listed 1passwordagent using 40% of my CPU resources. I know this Mac is only a 1.25GHz iMac G4 but 40% just to remember a couple of passwords? I'd rather type the darn things in by hand.
Roustem said 12:57AM on 8-01-2009
Robert,
I can see where your frustration is coming from. However, please understand that what you saw was not even a beta of version 3.0 but a very early look at it. It will take a lot more time and effort on to make it polished and ready for release.
About 1PasswordAgent using 40% of the CPU — most probably it was busy downloading thumbnails at your request. If you try to ask Safari to load a few hundred websites one after another and I am sure its CPU usage won't be lower than that.
If you are having trouble using Logins, please email support@agile.ws and we'll do our best to help. I know that there are currently a couple of issues with Firefox 3.5, we hope get them fixed in the next few days.
Robert said 11:10AM on 8-01-2009
Fair enough, sir. I do understand the program is still in development but it's not like this is version 1.0. We Mac users are somewhat spoiled in the sense that available software for the Mac OSX platform tends to work and I found the issues I had with 1password vexing.
Let's take my experience with 1password, specifically its "integration" with GMail. Google's tentacles stretch the world over. We can't escape from it no matter how hard we might try. Why, then, is 1password unable to obtain a thumbnail logo for Google? I could see an issue if I was one of three people in the whole world using a software program written by one bloke in his basement, but Google?
And what URL do I use for GMail? Do I use http://www.gmail.com or do I use the (ridiculously long) referred URL of https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=mail&passive=true&rm=false&continue=http%3A%2F%2Fmail.google.com%2Fmail%2F%3Fui%3Dhtml%26zy%3Dl&bsv=zpwhtygjntrz&scc=1<mpl=default<mplcache=2
Perhaps it doesn't matter but I tried both thinking the "correct" URL was required for thumbnail retrieval. Neither option worked.
Also...portals like Yahoo! don't use one master login page. As I stated above, there are numerous sub-sites like Sports, Games, and Finance--each with their own login. With that said, what URL do I use? Note that my browser's "home page" is http://m.www.yahoo.com/ which is somewhat of a "gateway" to all of Yahoo's sub-sites. When I used 1password to log into that page, it defaulted to Yahoo! Finance. Sure, it properly logged me in but why in the world would it send me there? I don't even USE Yahoo Finance.
Lee McCartney said 5:32PM on 7-31-2009
thanks for the tip! Like the new layout.
I got 1password last year in the thanksgiving sale TUAW mentioned (http://www.tuaw.com/2008/11/26/agile-offering-free-licenses-15-discount/) Kinda bummed that i dont get a free upgrade to the new version but I guess they have to make the cut off at some point.
Any word on what the upgrade price will be?
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