• If you purchased 1Password 2 on or after February 1, 2009 you get a free upgrade to 1Password 3. For bonus points: your current license should "just work" in the new version.
• If you bought a license for any previous version of 1Password before February 1 (even if you got it through a bundle deal like MacHeist) single user license upgrades are $19.95, and Family 5-Pack licenses are $29.95. Note that this price is only good through November 30, 2009.
• For new users can try a fully-functioning 1Password 3 demo for 30 days. New single licenses are $39.95, and Family 5-Packs are $69.95. A 30-day money back guarantee is offered.

Most of us have really crappy, insecure passwords. Sure, we tack a couple of numbers or punctuation characters at the end of our cat's name, but that's a far cry from secure -- especially since we also have the equally nasty habit of using the same password on every single site/service/machine/device with which we have regular contact. We're not just asking for trouble, we're offering it a delectable stolen identity sandwich.

As most of us Mac folks know, a solution exists and it's called 1Password. If you've owned your Mac for more than an hour or so, chances are pretty good that you've been admonished to acquire this lovely app (maybe even by more than one person). Several of us at TUAW are big fans of 1Password, and today our pointy party hats are standing taller than ever thanks to the opening of the public beta for 1Password 3.

This new version brings with it a massive list of changes, improvements and new features -- a couple of which have helped me to realize the dream of being able to utilize 1Password data on OSes other than OS X. You see, like many other Mac enthusiasts, I use Windows at work. Obviously, this precludes me from fully embracing Mac-only software like 1Password, but thanks to a brand new feature called 1Password Anywhere, my pain is dulled.

1Password Anywhere allows you to take your 1Password data and open it using any modern web browser. I've tested this with Chrome, Firefox and IE under Windows XP and they all work wonderfully. Your data is still absolutely secure and stored behind the same master password that protects the data in 1Password proper. They didn't spare any detail, either -- 1Password Anywhere looks and feels remarkably similar to the native OSX application. The data is read-only in your browser, but being able to easily the strong passwords and paste them is worth the admission price. The truly enlightened will see the application of a service like Dropbox here -- just move your keychain file into your Dropbox and your passwords are now with you whenever you go.

Gallery: 1Password 3 Beta

I recently bought a new Mac, and I decided not to migrate years of cruft over to a pristine Snow Leopard install. I also decided to shed years of stale workflow and adopt a new way of doing things. Enter the power tools: software that augments the power and performance of OS X to do things faster and smarter. I'll examine some general system enhancements and look at a couple of powerful Mac/iPhone app combos that really work well together.

Step one was finding a replacement for my beloved QuickSilver. I had abandoned QS well over a year ago due to performance issues on most of my Macs, but after a nagging pain in my wrist surfaced, I realized I had to find more keyboard shortcuts. Enter LaunchBar, which fills in for 90% of what QuickSilver used to do for me. LaunchBar is one Ctrl-Space (configurable, of course) away from Spotlight searching, Google searching, application launching, math calculations and much, much more. LaunchBar is $25 around $35 per seat, and worth taking 15 minutes to learn the basics. Go ahead, hate me for giving up QS, but try LaunchBar before you hurl the insults.

Next I needed a better way to juggle 3 Gmail accounts. But I also needed a way to track the metric ton of inbox items that flow through those email conduits. The solution was the combination of MailPlane and Things. I had really dedicated my heart to Toodledo, but there's one trick I couldn't replicate on any setup (The Hit List included): when I get an email in MailPlane, I can select some text and press Shift-Ctrl-Opt-Cmd-0 and the Things HUD pops up and autofills the notes section with a link to the email itself. It is awesome. Not perfect, mind you, but a huge thing for me.

Read on for more power tools and tips.

1Password is one of my very favorite and most essential Mac utilities. Combined with Dropbox, I can have all of my login information synced to all of my Macs.

The other day I noticed that 1Password had gained a lot of weight, specifically around the backups area. I'm not usually one to comment on such things, but we weren't talking about "love handles," 1Password's backups had gone from 1MB to 21MB literally overnight. On August 28th, the backups were 1MB, and on August 29th, the backups were suddenly 21MB.

Wait? Did you say August 28th? Isn't that when Snow Leopard was released? Yes it was. And wasn't that when you switched from 1Password version 2 to 1Password version 3? Yes it was. Could that have something to do with it?

I contacted 1Password's excellent support staff who correctly diagnosed that the increase was related to the preview images which are used for Login and Software License icons. (These can be found in the 1Password.agilekeychain/a/default/thumb folder.) Each preview image take about 100K. With 600+ items in my agilekeychain, this quickly added up.

Fortunately, this is easily fixed. If disk space is a concern, the icons and previews can be deleted using 1Password > Preferences > General > Remove all icons and previews. I also unchecked the box next to "Automatically download icons and previews for new Logins." After I did that, the backup size went from 21.5MB to 889KB!

Why worry about space with today's hard drive spaces? I have 1Password set to backup to my Dropbox account, which is limited to a total of 5GB. Plus this meant having to upload 20+MB every day versus <1MB. Personally I neither use nor need the icons, so it's no loss to me, and it makes a big difference.

Many thanks to the 1Password folks for helping me get to the bottom of this mystery!

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 ...

We, of course, had lunch with our favorite Canadian developers at WWDC. Talking with Dave, Roustem and the rest of the crew from Agile Web Solutions is something I look forward to anytime we're all in San Francisco. I didn't film the whole lunch; being filmed eating is almost as awkward as eating alone in the cafeteria, I think. So here's a quick -- but very interesting -- clip of Dave Teare explaining how cut-and-paste in iPhone OS 3.0 is going to be used in 1Password. If you're a 1Password user, you'll probably want to check it out!

Update: The Agile Web Solutions guys have been nice enough to extend beta invites to another 100 TUAW readers. Those that don't make it into the first round, don't worry, the guys said they will be putting you on a waiting list and accessing that over the next couple of months, so with any luck, everyone can get in on the fun! Check out http://switchersblog.com for details in the coming weeks. Once again, send an e-mail with the subject "I want my 1P3 beta!" to 1P3Promo [at] agile [dot] ws!

I am a huge fan of Agile Web Solutions's 1Password. It's always one of the first applications I install on a freshly formatted Mac, and I use it countless times a day to manage my logins to various web sites, forums, shopping sites and more. I used to be really, really bad about using the same few passwords for every login, but the strong password generator coupled with support across browsers (and on the iPhone and iPod touch) makes it easy for me to have distinct and secure logins all over the web.

Last night, the Agile Web Solutions team released the 2.9.19 beta (with support for Safari 4), and if you subscribe to the 1Password newsletter, you know that 1Password 3.0 is gearing up for testing before being released later this year.

We've got some juicy details about what to expect in 1Password 3.0 and a chance for current 1Password fans to get in on the private 1Password 3.0 beta! Read on...

Gallery: 1Password 3 beta

It's always a pleasure to see the guys from Agile Web Solutions. I spoke to them about three upcoming features for 1Password, their secure, password-collecting, form-filling application. I won't go into a lot of detail on 1Password, we've mentioned it a few times before.

First, we talked a little about the new Agile Keychain format; being a package format, it opens up quite a few possibilities, including the (upcoming) ability to add encrypted notes in rich text format, complete with links and attachments. We also talked about what happened to my1Password, the web-based version of 1Password: it's evolving into a portable version which can be carried around on a USB stick or accessed through something like drop.io. Lastly, they're incorporating fingerprint scanning (0Password?), which will work with both wired and portable USB versions of the fingerprint scanner.

Thanks to Dave and Roustem for their time! Note that I made it through this post without making a single reference to your Canadian colloquialisms, eh? Also note that it's Roustem on the left and Dave on the right at the beginning of the clip, even though I introduced them the other way around.

Read on for the video.

Agile Web Solutions today offered its customers a Thanksgiving present: a free copy of 1Password. Existing customers are encouraged to give up to three extra licenses to their friends by visiting Agile's website and providing their information.

New customers can also benefit: If you purchase 1Password today, you get two licenses for the price of one. Agile is also offering a discount to new orders, taking 15 percent off your final total.

The promotion ends Sunday.

We may have mentioned it one or two (dozen) times, but 1Password is a great solution for securely managing passwords, credit cards and notes on a Mac (and recently the iPhone). If you're a 1Password fan, be sure to check out the 2.9 release from last weekend; it has a pretty huge new feature. For quite a while now there have been grumblings about the OS X Keychain being a bit of a beast, especially when handling large amounts of data. Rather than waiting out Apple for new improvements to the Keychain system, the stalwart coders at Agile Web Solutions decided to write their own.

If you dig into the Keychain section of the preferences in 1Password 2.9, you'll find an option to "Switch to Agile Keychain Format." What's the difference? First, it allows easy file-based synchronization, making possible non-MobileMe solutions for syncing up multiple Macs. Further, it maintains speedy access even when it contains gigs of data, as well as supporting much higher levels of encryption. Sounds good to me.

If you're ready to switch your keychain format, head over to the developer's blog for detailed instructions, and read up on the various options for automatic sync between Macs. 1Password 2.9 is a free upgrade for existing users, and new users can grab a free trial. A single license runs $39.95USD with a family pack available for $59.95USD. For the full changelog for this release, check the version history page.

Consumer Reports, in its annual internet security survey, recommended that Mac users avoid Safari because of its lack of phishing protection. Instead, they recommend users install Firefox 3 or Opera 9.5 as their default browsers, since both will warn users before displaying the contents of sites known to be source of scams and personal information theft.

Jeff Fox, technology editor at Consumer Reports, noted that "e-mail is the weak vector on the Mac," meaning that most successful phishing attacks on Mac users arrive via email.

"Windows users are used to being paranoid about not clicking [links in phishing emails]," he said. "Mac users aren't, even though they say, 'Antivirus software, who needs it?'"

As we've mentioned before, 1Password does a great job of adding phishing protection to Safari. Also, always be extra-wary of clicking links in emails from people you don't know.

[Via Computerworld.]

• dual PIN and Master Password security, so you can quickly access "less important" stuff via the PIN
• wireless secure sync with one or more Macs
• built-in browser
• and it's free! (The desktop app costs $34.95 for a single license.)

I know we just mentioned the upcoming iPhone version of 1Password yesterday, so I'll make this quick. Version 2.7 (of the desktop variety) was just released and it adds a brand new feature: a fully keyboard-accessible HUD window which allows you to instantly navigate to a website and log in.

According to the developers, this feature has been In the works for over a year. It integrates all of your "Go & Fill" 1Click bookmarks directly into your web browser. The HUD window (yes, I have a weak spot for those sexy, transparent black HUDs) has a search feature at the top of it which allows for speedy location of the bookmark you're looking for.

So, please excuse the extra mention; I think this new feature is useful enough to warrant a quick note. Current users just need to check the auto-updates within the application. Curious parties can visit the 1Password page.

We stumbled upon some preview pictures of 1Password for the iPhone (see our WWDC chat with Agile Web Solutions), which were deleted almost as quickly as they surfaced on Dave Teare's photostream. Since we are, for the moment, playing by the rules of finders, keepers, we (gently) persuaded Dave to give us a little more info on what we were seeing.

It looks like the PIN field shown will allow for quick access to "less sensitive" information, such as your Digg or Flickr logins. For more secure sites, such as your bank account, the usual Master Password is implemented. Dave says they considered using gestures and other creative methods for unlocking, but in the end a "PIN feels more natural and is a well-understood concept, and you can't beat a real password for security."

Interesting to note is that the 1Password iPhone application will, itself, be a browser. Because of Apple's rules regarding "hacking" existing applications, they couldn't modify Safari to integrate 1Password. But Dave says that they're adding some "cool features" that will "make users not want to use Safari directly anyway." Personally, I'm more than willing to switch browsers for added security and convenience.

It looks like the 1Password team is going to miss the big App Store opening day, but they plan to be in there shortly after.

Gallery: 1Password iPhone sneak peek