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Spb Software House's Spb WalletJuly 24, 2007 If I created a poll here on Clinton Fitch (Dot) Com! and asked "How many passwords or PINs (Personal Identification Numbers) do you have?" my guess is that most of you could answer with at least a dozen if not more. The fact is, as our world has become more and more "digital", the more passwords, PINs and other private information we are required to store and access almost instantly. Keeping up with these tidbits of information can be a challenge and securing them once you have them can be an even greater challenge. For Windows Mobile users, electronic "wallet" applications have been available for many years which have aided in keeping your personal information in an easy-to-access place while keeping it secure through encryption and passwords. The latest entry into this type of application comes from Spb Software House and is aptly named Spb Wallet. As you would come to expect from Spb Software House, Spb Wallet is an outstanding application. It is well written and highly secured - a 256-bit encryption key is used - yet it is quick and easy to access the information within the wallet file itself. Further, seamless synchronization via ActiveSync or Windows Mobile Device Center makes keeping your wallet file up-to-date on both your PC - for the PC version of the application - and your Windows Mobile device almost an afterthought. While it is clear there are some areas for improvement in Spb Wallet - this is, after all, the v1.0 release - it is equally clear that the Spb team have done a great job with this initial release. Spb Wallet is installed on your Windows based PC and your Windows Mobile device via a common installer which is run from your desktop. During the installation ActiveSync or WMDC is started to perform the installation of the application on your Windows Mobile device. In total, you will need to have approximately 20MB of hard disk space on your Windows PC while approximately 2MB is needed on your Windows Mobile device. From an Operating System perspective you will be to be running Windows 2000, XP or Vista on your PC while your Windows Mobile device needs to be running PocketPC 2003, 2003SE, Windows Mobile 5 or 6. After installation is complete and Spb Wallet is started you are prompted to either select an existing wallet file to open or to create a new file. At this point, Spb Wallet will only look for Spb Wallet files (.SWL). If you are using another wallet application you will first have to export it from that application then import it into a well in Spb Wallet. I will cover this process in further detail later in this review. When you tap Create a New Wallet you are prompted to enter a name for that new wallet file as well as where you want to store it on your device.
After your new wallet file is created, Spb Wallet prompts you to create a password for the wallet. Passwords for wallet files are required in Spb Wallet and is used as part of the 256-bit AES encryption incorporated into the application. A visual indicator is provided to indicate to you if your password selection is weak, normal or strong. Generally, a password that has 6 or fewer characters will be weak while a password of 8 or more characters that includes numbers and punctuation will be considered strong.
As a final step in creating your new wallet, you are asked if you want to synchronize the file with your desktop PC. Since Spb has included the desktop version of Spb Wallet, it is a good idea to do synchronization as you can edit your wallet cards from either your PC or Windows Mobile device. Further, because synchronization is automatic thanks to an ActiveSync plug-in, you do not have to worry about your wallet being out-of-sync.
The user interface of Spb Wallet is straightforward, displaying the categories of your cards. When you create a new wallet there are several categories pre-defined for you. All of these categories can be edited or deleted as you see fit. The nice thing about the interface is that by-and-large it is identical to the desktop interface, making the learning curve low on Spb Wallet.
When using Spb Wallet, the majority of the features that are most commonly used are located on the Menu>File menu. From here you can create or open a new wallet file, create a new folder within a wallet, a new wallet card or a new card template.
As you can see from the structure of my wallet, I generously use folders to help keep my cards (and thus myself!) organized. When you choose New Folder... on the File menu, you are prompted to enter a name for the folder and choose a default template for that folder. By choosing the template, effectively you are defining what type of cards you are going to store in that folder. Finally, you can choose the icon to represent that new folder.
Once your new folder is created, adding a card to that folder is just as easy. Tap the Menu>Folder menu and tap New Card... or tap-and-hold the folder in which you want to create the card and tap New Card. When creating a new card, you are provided several tabs to fill out, some of which are optional. The General tab is where you name your card, choose the template - if you want to deviate from the folders default template - and the icon for the card. The Fields tab is the tab where the information contained in the card is stored. The fields on this tab will vary depending on the template chosen. Additionally, not every field is required to be filled out. The view tab allows you to see the look of the card you are creating while the attachment tab allows you to attached a file to the card. Finally, the Notes tab, as the name suggests, allows you to add a note to the card you are creating if you wish to do so.
One of the real strengths of Spb Wallet is the ability to create customized card templates. By tapping New Template from the Menu>File menu, you can select what fields you want on a particular card template. The creation of a new template is very much like that of creating a new card. You name your template, select a base template on which your will build your own and choose an icon to represent your template. Next you select the fields you want to display in your template by tapping the Field tab. All possible entries are listed based on the base template you chose and you can re-arrange or remove fields in your template. In addition to adding notes, you can also customize the view of the cards using your template on the View tab.
In addition to creating your own templates, you can also modify the included templates of Spb Wallet to more accurately fit your needs. This is done from the Tools>Templates... menu and by tapping template you want to modify, you are provided the same interface as you are when creating a new template. From here you can edit any aspect of the template as if you were creating it yourself. While Spb Wallet offers a variety of different viewing methods of the cards in your wallet, it does offer one that is unique among this genre of applications. Spb Wallet allows you to view cards that you use most often. To view your wallet's cards in this way, simply tap the View>Most Used Cards menu. This will then modify the display to show the 10 most common cards that you access. Why is this handy? As one who travels and one who routinely needs to show Frequent Flyer membership numbers or hotel preferred guest accounts, it is very handy! No longer do I have to wade through folders to open a card saving me - and most likely the person behind the counter - time. It's a simple but effective way to make the application even more useful.
Second only to the File menu, the Tools menu is likely the most commonly used menu in Spb Wallet. From this menu you can modify templates as previously mentioned as well as Backup your wallet, change the password of your wallet, set up synchronization with your desktop and generate a password to be used either in Spb Wallet or another application. The password generator is quite impressive and can generate very strong, 12 character passwords that contain alphanumeric as well as symbols. In testing the tool I was quite pleased but found remembering a 12 character password with ${(&> characters in them to be rather difficult to remember without writing it down - defeating the whole purpose in the process! This isn't necessarily of a fault of Spb Wallet but more of a warning to be careful when choosing just how strong you want your password to be when you generate it.
Briefly there is also an including search option with Spb Wallet which allows you to search for a particular string of text amongst the cards in your wallet file. I found the search function works quiet well but frankly, I have fewer than 100 cards in total in my wallet file. Finding cards is not that difficult for me (remember, I'm a big fan of folders!) and the Most Used Cards view really makes the common cards you use a snap to find. While I'm glad to see the search function in the application, I do not think most users will find it helpful unless they have several hundred cards.
The final important menu in Spb Wallet on the Windows Mobile platform is the options menu. From here you can configure the application both from a functional perspective as well as a security perspective. For example, you can adjust to view cards in full screen mode while also configuring the application to automatically lock your wallet file after a pre-defined period of time. This feature is quite helpful if you happen to leave your device on your desk while at work!
With the Windows Mobile version of Spb Wallet covered, let's briefly turn to the Windows desktop version of the application that is included with purchase. I say brief simply because most of the function that is in the Windows Mobile version is identical to that of the desktop version. This similarity in function makes learning the application only one exercise and not two separate ones for each platform. That cuts down on your time getting use to using the application! A key feature that is on the desktop version is the ability to import a wallet file from either Ilium eWallet, WebIS FlexWallet or Developer One CodeWallet. If you use one of these competing products and decide to go with Spb Wallet, this will save you a tremendous amount of time as you will not have to manually re-create every card. To use the import feature, open it from the File>Import... menu and select the brand of wallet you are importing: eWallet, FlexWallet or CodeWallet. The next screen prompts you for the file location of your other products wallet file as well as important instructions on the file format the wallet file must be in for it to be imported. This is one aspect of Spb Wallet that needs to be addressed. Because you have to export your wallet file from your old program into a .TXT or .XML file, you end up repeating steps in order to do the import. The file format information should be provided at the first step so as not to confuse users or frustrate them with multiple mouse clicks. Once the file has been exported to the proper format, the file can be imported into Spb Wallet. All of your folders along with your cards will be imported. Unfortunately, because of the differences in field names, the card data from your old program is imported as a note on your new cards in Spb Wallet. This isn't necessarily a fault of Spb Wallet but more to do with the formats that can imported. For this feature to be truly powerful files in their native format need to be formatted which is likely more of a legal issue for Spb than a technical one. In my opinion, why one of the best features of Spb Wallet, the import feature has the most growing room left in it.
The layout of the desktop interface of Spb Wallet is strikingly similar to that of Microsoft Outlook 2003. On the left hand pane you have the file structure of the folders in your wallet with quick access buttons to My Cards and Templates at the bottom of the pane. In right hand pane the available tasks such as Create New Folder, Create New Card, Create New Wallet and so forth are listed while below that your most commonly used cards are listed for quick and easy access. In the middle pane is the listing of the cards in your wallet or in a particular folder. From here you can open a card or a folder simply by double-clicking it. Spb Wallet does lack a print function which, on the surface, would seem logical for a secure wallet application. However there are times while at home that having a print out of a software installation key or personal information that I can then shred is handy. It would be nice for the application to have this in a future release.
A real strength of Spb Wallet is the seamless synchronization of wallet files between the desktop and Windows Mobile platform. The implementation of an ActiveSync plug-in makes the process virtually pain free and I found it to be very reliable. Essentially there is no setup to do from a user perspective when it comes to synchronizing your file. When you create your file you are asked if you want to enable synchronization. If you select yes, you are done! Everything required to allow for the sync to happen is done automatically. It is a real strength of Spb Wallet. While Spb has been on of the last to enter into the wallet application genre, it is clear they have done their homework and have developed a viable product in their initial release. The application does have some rough edges, most notably around wallet importing, but overall is a good option in an already crowded wallet-style application arena. If Spb continues to develop the application and improve speed and importing, it will quickly become a key player. Spb Wallet is supported via email/web support from Spb and responses are usually accurate but sometimes slow in getting back to you. I found most questions sent to them were answered within 48 hours while one question sent took nearly 72 hours to have a response sent. If you are comfortable using wallet applications this delay should not bother you much and frankly you can find a lot of information in the Spb forums where are free to registered users without having to go to technical support. Spb Wallet comes with both the Windows Mobile and Windows Desktop version and sells for $19.95 (US). You can purchase it directly from Spb Software House or through the Clinton Fitch (Dot) Com! Software store. Now through July 29th you can save 15% off Spb Wallet at the store by using the coupon code CFSPBWALLET when you check out. Currently Spb Wallet is only available for Windows Mobile Professional devices but a Standard version is in development. Clinton Fitch, MVP-Mobile Devices |
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