1Password, Lion and that new Safari extension
1Password version 3 was recently made available with Mac OS X Lion compatibility, enhanced keyboard shortcuts and, most notably for Safari users, a new Safari extension. The new extension borrows heavily from its Chrome counterpart and represents a departure from the older version. I spoke with Dave Chartier about what Safari users can expect from the current version of 1Password as well a few other goodies.
TUAW: Dave, thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions for me. Right off the bat I've got to ask you about the re-designed Safari extension, which is available to Lion users and Snow Leopard users running Safari 5.1. It's quite a departure from its predecessor, at least in the looks department. What can you tell me about the new extension?
Dave: With the new extension we wanted to give users a bigger slice of 1Password right in the browser. The goal was to give you access to more of your data without having to open the 1Password app, and yet speed up the login and form-filling experience whether you're a mouse cowboy or keyboard ninja. It is now much easier to flip through between your Logins, Identities, Credit Cards, and the Strong Password Generator, and new users should have a much easier time learning and exploring what 1Password can do for them.
TUAW: I see that the new Safari extension is similar to the Chrome extension, at least in appearance. What motivated the team to bring the Chrome extension's look to Safari?
Dave: Why, it's all just part of the plan! We released our Chrome extension early in 2010. We've been working for a some time towards unifying as much of our extension code and interface as possible, and with the increased pace of Chrome and now Firefox development, we grew more motivated to focus our efforts there in order to improve the update process for our users.
Last November we decided to try out this new interface and extension architecture with our Chrome users and it was a huge hit. We received fantastic feedback, and when Apple announced Lion earlier this year and a number of changes coming to Safari 5.1 for Snow Leopard users, we decided Safari should be the next step.
One of the great features of this new extension is that it will allow us to update it without having to update the 1Password application. Automatic extension updates is a big selling point of Chrome, and now Safari supports it too. In fact, this new version installs as an official Safari extension -- you can open Safari 5.1's preferences and see for yourself.
TUAW: Are there any other goodies that Lion users can expect from the latest version of 1Password?
My favorite goodies (which work for both Lion and Snow Leopard users in Safari 5.1) are all the new keyboard shortcuts, which we highlight on our blog and in a dedicated support document. You can now call the 1Password extension, find a login, tab between your Logins, Identities, Credit Cards, and Strong Password Generator, and view details on every item (including password history!) without touching your mouse.
The ability to view an item's details comes in handy in a bunch of ways too, such as when you need to log into a Flash site. Instead of having to stop what you're doing, open the 1Password app, and hunt for your login there, you can just stay in the browser and open the new 1Password extension, then hit the right arrow key to view your Login's details and copy the password to paste into the form. It's a huge time saver.
Thanks, Dave! 1Password has many fans on the TUAW staff, myself included. Here's to future updates.
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1Password version 3 was recently made available with Mac OS X Lion compatibility, enhanced keyboard shortcuts and, most notably for...
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Hi
I really love the application, but on lion with safari 5.1, the extension just simply doesnt work :( it shows the enter master password, but when i enter it and click on login, nothing happens, i tried disabling require master password, but then the extension shows the left menu, but nothing on the right side, none off the menu buttons works too, :(
Ive updated my 1password and safari extension to the latest version today, but no luck.
Please help me on this (may be it needs some preferences reset or something?)
Frankly speaking, it's a bit frightening to read about all hard work 1Password team does to fix the things *after* they were released. It is not the way security-related software should be developed.
And please don't allow that summer trainee who designed UI for the new extension to touch anything again.
the biggest problem, as well documented all over the agile forums is the fact that there is now a MAJOR security flaw with the new safari extension. currently running lion, 1password Version 3.6.5 (build 31075), and safari 5.1 and no matter how the preferences are set up, the extension will NOT autolock after the subscribed amount of time. yes, the application will lock, but the extension will not, thereby leaving the extension wide open for someone to come by and log in and/or access all of your logins. there have been dozens of posting on this subject on agile's own site as well as many many direct customer complaints, but can not seem to get any answer about when a fix will be coming. agile has always been great with expediting fixes for new OS's, browsers, etc. and i'm really hoping they can get on the ball with this one soon. unless you manually lock the extension it will not lock after the subscribed amount of time, after sleep, etc. unless safari is completely quit, it leaves the system vulnerable. HELP please. thanks
July 27 2011 at 1:48 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI'm sorry for the trouble, stevleg3. We found a few cases where auto lock would fail for non-admin users.
Please try upgrading to the latest 1Password for Mac beta and the latest 1Password Safari extension. The auto lock problem is fixed there.
--Dave Teare
AgileBits Founder
Hmmm. Not really sure what all the fuss is about. 1password works perfectly fine for me in Safari. Just as good as it does in Chrome, my primary browser.
I love 1password. So much better (and more secure) than lastpass. Mow if there was only an extension for mobile Safari... (coming in ios5?)
Thank you, Aargh-a-Knot! Your kind words mean a lot to us and help us keep moving forward!
I love the new extension, too, but there were some rough spots and missing features in the first release that certainly didn't help. We've added a lot of missing features over the last week (it's hard to believe Lion is only a week old; it feels like a life time!) and we are also redesigning the UI in order to address several concerns we've heard from users.
I think once we're done polishing things everyone will be happy. Well, almost everyone :)
--Dave Teare
AgileBits Founder
I've got to admit, as much as I love 1Password (I'm a recent convert), I just can't get to grips with the new Safari extension. As others say, it's slow, but more importantly than that, sometimes it simply doesn't work! It tells me "there are no saved passwords for this site" but when I open the desktop app, there's my password clear as day!
Its ability to find the login for my corporate intranet returned with the latest update, but there are still other sites where it just doesn't find the login. These all appear to be sites where I had previously told 1Password to generate the password for me.... [edit: even on this very site it's telling me I have no password saved! Gahhh!]
Hi Someone! Sorry to hear you're having trouble with the new extension. We've released a number of updates in the past few days, so let's make sure you're running the latest versions of 1Password and our extension. Here's a doc to help with that:
http://help.agilebits.com/1Password3/safari_5.1_install_update.html
As for form filling and Login recognition issues, could you post those in our forum where our support staff can lend a hand? They should be able to get you squared away!
http://forum.agile.ws/index.php?/forum/14-1password-browser-extensions/
I hope this helps.
David, you can add me to the list of those long time 1Password users who are profoundly disappointed, even disgusted, with the new extension. 1Password has been, since I purchased my first copy in 2008, one of the first things I recommend in any conversation involving useful apps for Macintosh, and more recently, for iPhones, Windows, and Droids as well. It's my stalwart companion on every internet capable device I own, including one Linux box, via WINE. I'm an active 1Password evangelist.
BUT
The new extension, for all of its shiny new features, is NOT fast. It's slow. It's animated eye candy, a toy when compared to its former self. Clunky, even as your site has erroneously described the old menu version. 1Password has always been about efficiency. I appreciate that the new interface can be keyboard driven to some degree (though it should contain visual clues to keyboard shortcuts within its UI). I do not appreciate that it takes graphics horsepower to display what formerly worked in a lightning fast menu. Please give us the option to turn off the animation, get rid of the vault-like graphics, and use something that's snappy even on older hardware. I'm appalled that Agile has gone down this flashy but sluggish UI route.
The extension's window is giant and obtrusive. It obscures a large portion of the page below, and sometimes makes it impossible to see the login fields, which may be necessary in deciding which login to choose from 1Password's plugin. The screen real estate overshadowed by this new oversized dialog window also requires considerably more mousing, for those who haven't absorbed the keyboard shortcuts, or already have mouse in hand. It used to be, when you clicked on 1P, the login you most likely wanted was right below your cursor. A twitch of the fingers, and it was clicked. Now, the wrist has to get involved. I hate applications that keep me mousing back and forth. I don't want to hate 1Password.
On the subject of keyboard shortcuts, arrow-key driven keyboard commands are far from efficient. They pull my hand far enough away from the home keys, that I might as well be grabbing the mouse. Why won't the items in the login list respond to the typing of the letters in their names, as is nearly universal in Mac navigation?
Is there a way to launch the full 1Password app from within a browser anymore? If there is, I've missed it. That was a much used feature for me. I hope it gets added back, but I'm a bit concerned that the graphical nature of the new plugin interface will become cluttered as features are re-introduced. Another lost advantage of the ever dependable and orderly menu.
I can see that I've droned on, and am about to run up against the character limit. Suffice it to say that I have another four or five paragraphs worth of reasons why I hate the new plugin almost as much as I have loved 1Password in general up to this moment. This makes me sad. Even when the bugs are worked out, I'll be missing my old efficient friend
Hi uncleotto. I'm really sorry to hear you're disappointed in the new extension, but we're listening to all feedback, and especially feedback like yours. It's a primary reason why we released six updates over four days last week and are working on a redesign and some more big optimizations. I published a post on Sunday about some of our recent improvements and I included a couple of screenshots of the upcoming redesign, so we'd love to hear your thoughts on it:
http://blog.agilebits.com/2011/07/big-safari-extension-updates-and-a-sneak-peek/
It's been a lot of work to get 1Password ready for Lion, Safari 5.1, and the Mac App Store. If you can give us a little more time, we'll have some great updates for you soon.
I'm really sorry but I hate the safari extention - I do not have autodial turned on but it still says no passwords saved for this site. Auto submit doesn't work and the whole thing is too big and in your face. It was perfect in snow leopard, it just did its job without getting in the way. I have now disabled the extension and I'm going to wait for a decent alternative or update. I'm not a complainer but this has ruined my Lion upgrade.
July 26 2011 at 1:06 AM Report abuse Permalink +1 rate up rate down ReplyHi Retro Images, I'm really sorry to hear our new extension hasn't been a great experience for you. For what it's worth, it sounds like you may be running into some bugs due to what I suspect may be older versions of the extension or 1Password. Could you try updating 1Password and our extension to the latest version to see if that improves things? 1Password should check for updates on its own and Safari should be updating your extension automatically (an advantage of our new extension format), but just in case, here's a doc on how to do these updates:
http://help.agilebits.com/1Password3/safari_5.1_install_update.html
If you're still having trouble, swing on by our extension forum where our support folks can help you better than I: http://forum.agile.ws/index.php?/forum/14-1password-browser-extensions/
I hope we can get you back on your feet and improve your Lion upgrade experience!
Thanks David. i love 1password and Safari - i have no desire to switch to chrome or firefox, and my experience under Lion is completely different than Snow Leopard. I'll go as far as to say that you should not have released it. I see you all over the web saying it will get better. To be fair to you, we can see you working hard, but still 1password doesn't see my saved logins for half the sites i visit. Today I'm trying out lastpass and I'm not happy that I'm doing it - but that's how bad the safari extension is. Keep at it!
July 26 2011 at 6:02 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate downFor some odd reason, when I changed the password for 1password, the browser extension still used the old master password (and refuses to switch to the new one). Any ideas?
July 25 2011 at 11:39 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyAlso, there's this odd glitch where I select a username/password, the page refreshes (it looks like it's going to the next page), and the username field is filled in--but the password field is blank.
July 25 2011 at 11:41 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyHi Drumrobot. Sorry to hear 1Password isn't updating your passwords properly. My first idea is to try clearing out your 1Password cache by going to the Help menu in 1Password, then Troubleshooting > Clear Cache. Then restart your browser just to be sure.
Another basic step is to make sure you're using the latest versions of 1Password and our extension. 1Password checks for updates when you start it up and Safari should automatically upgrade our extension, but in case you want to force manual updates, here is a doc that shows you how:
http://help.agilebits.com/1Password3/safari_5.1_install_update.html
As far as the extension not filling a form properly, there are a few solutions to try here that we've wrapped together in a support document. Please check this out to see if it fixes the issue:
http://help.agilebits.com/1Password3/troubleshooting_safari_5.1.html#a_login_used_to_work_now_it_doesnt
I hope these help!
I'm afraid I would start using crazy passwords I could never remember for my iPod. I'll stick with making up my own secure passwords for now, but I've always liked the idea of 1Password.
July 25 2011 at 10:50 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyHi Mike! Fortunately, we thought ahead about making sure customers could get to their passwords on their iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Android devices, so we have mobile apps that sync with 1Password on the Mac. Here's a link for 1Password Pro in the App Store if you want to check it out:
http://itunes.apple.com/app/1password-pro/id319898689
I hope this helps!
Please give us back the Fill & Go extension.
During the old days I would open safari on a blank tab, unlock 1password and go from there only using fill & go!
It's a shame the new extension opens up on top of the window and makes you click and scroll and click and…
Not to talk about folders are missing so all my personal and business passwords are all mixed together!
Hi Tiago! Go & Fill is here in the new extension, and we released a couple of updates over the weekend that improve it a little further. Here's a post on that:
http://blog.agilebits.com/2011/07/big-safari-extension-updates-and-a-sneak-peek/
But in short: as long as you're running the latest version of our extension (released over the weekend), you can now open the extension, go to the Logins > All Logins tab, type a few letters, and hit return to open the page and login. You can also use our standard Command-Option-L shortcut to go straight to the All Logins tab a little more quickly.
There's one bit of functionality we're still working on adding back into the new extension, and that's the "open in a new tab" aspect of Go & Fill. Right now, if you use Go & Fill from within the browser like I just described, the page will open in the current tab, and we'll fix that soon. But if you use Go & Fill by right-clicking on the Dock icon or clicking a URL in the 1Password app, the site will open in a new tab and you'll log in.
Folders is something else we're working on adding back into the extension. It's been a lot of work getting ready for Lion, Safari 5.1, and the Mac App Store. If you can give us a little more time, we'll have some great updates that will give you an even better experience. I hope this helps!
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