SplashID Used To Be Great, But Now It's Crap
I hate it when an application I've relied on heavily and recommended to friends disappoints me with a new version that lacks key functionality found in older versions.
SplashID used to be a great password manager, until its iPhone version came along. In the good old days (back when I used it on a Palm PDA), it effectively stored passwords and synchronized them across numerous computers and the handheld PDA. All my passwords were always up-to-date on all the machines I used. And synchronization was a simple part of the Palm's own sync routine. So, essentially, you didn't have to do anything for this magic to happen.
Plus, SplashID would suggest new passwords to you and had other useful features.
I liked the app so much that I actually bought a low-end Palm PDA solely to run SplashID, even after I bought an iPhone last year. I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say that I was joyous when I heard that SplashID was being ported to the iPhone.
I installed it immediately and was initially disappointed in the sync routine. Because of how Apple restricts applications on the iPhone, SplashID cannot simply sync through iTunes the way Apple's apps do. Oh no, you've got to separately sync SplashID over a wifi network. That's just as hinky as you might imagine. And if you're in a work situation where your computer is on a wired, not wifi, network then you have to go through additional shenanigans to get it to work.
Okay, okay... I thought to myself, this is a downgrade from the Palm's system, but I love SplashID so much that I'll make do with it, clumsy as it was.
But then I noticed that changes to the passwords were not synchronizing across two computers. Each computer would overwrite the handheld with its version of the data. That can't be right, I thought. So, I posted a note to SplashID's support forum. They've always been very responsive in the past and I assumed that I was just not configuring things correctly.
But then I got an official reply from Justin of SplashData:
In sum: I am very irritated at this crappy "upgrade" of SplashID. And I think it's misleading of SplashData to advertise this feature thus:
SplashID used to be a great password manager, until its iPhone version came along. In the good old days (back when I used it on a Palm PDA), it effectively stored passwords and synchronized them across numerous computers and the handheld PDA. All my passwords were always up-to-date on all the machines I used. And synchronization was a simple part of the Palm's own sync routine. So, essentially, you didn't have to do anything for this magic to happen.
Plus, SplashID would suggest new passwords to you and had other useful features.
I liked the app so much that I actually bought a low-end Palm PDA solely to run SplashID, even after I bought an iPhone last year. I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say that I was joyous when I heard that SplashID was being ported to the iPhone.
I installed it immediately and was initially disappointed in the sync routine. Because of how Apple restricts applications on the iPhone, SplashID cannot simply sync through iTunes the way Apple's apps do. Oh no, you've got to separately sync SplashID over a wifi network. That's just as hinky as you might imagine. And if you're in a work situation where your computer is on a wired, not wifi, network then you have to go through additional shenanigans to get it to work.
Okay, okay... I thought to myself, this is a downgrade from the Palm's system, but I love SplashID so much that I'll make do with it, clumsy as it was.
But then I noticed that changes to the passwords were not synchronizing across two computers. Each computer would overwrite the handheld with its version of the data. That can't be right, I thought. So, I posted a note to SplashID's support forum. They've always been very responsive in the past and I assumed that I was just not configuring things correctly.
But then I got an official reply from Justin of SplashData:
Synchronization with 2 computers is not supported in the iPhone version. This is a completely different sync mechanism from the Palm sync.Oh, fuck me! Now I will have to stop using the iPhone version of SplashID and either revert to the Palm version or move to another password manager altogether. I have been a loyal user of SplashID for years and have frequently recommended it to friends, but I won't be able to do that anymore.
In sum: I am very irritated at this crappy "upgrade" of SplashID. And I think it's misleading of SplashData to advertise this feature thus:
Synchronize data between your handheld and Mac or PC using the desktop softwareIt should be corrected to read "between your handheld and a single desktop computer."
posted by Jeremy Butler at 8:31 PM
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