I downloaded the 1Password demo because of the free App for the iPod Touch. I was more than concerned with the $40 price tag considering that I purchased (and use) PasswordsPlus for $20.

At first, it seemed clunky - the form fill feature was being "touted everywhere" it seemed - and I didn't think I needed it.

I started filling in logins on a few websites in Safari and then jumping to FireFox to see the login work. It did.

Then came time to log into a site which uses a javascript login. Now I understand why the form filler comes in handy - sure - one can use it for filling in forms - but it is also the brains behind the "recognize unusual login scenarios." My curiousity was peaked.

I then wanted to try it for all of my "tough login sites" and was immediately confronted with the problem that I have more than a few current website passwords: 467 to exact.

I entered two, and realized I hated manual entry. I was bummed. I said to myself, "self, if this program is worth even half of the purchase price, it should have a way to make this import easy."

Guess what? There's a little "Import FireFox passwords" item in the FireFox 1P menu. Ditto for Safari. I was more than pleasantly surprised - 1Password imported all of my logins from the two programs AND deduplicated them down from 600+ to 463. There were four "problem children" that required me to manually transfer them, but they were EASY to spot from the import report.

Oh, and all of my information carefully gathered and secured in Passwords Plus over the past five years (Palm and Mac) were imported as well.

In the two weeks I've been using it, I have only one complaint - this doesn't work on the PC (which sometimes I have to use to view a website in MSIE).

Considering the availability of open source options like KeepPass, why would anyone pay $40 for this application? Great question: I think it ought to be priced at $19.95 (which would make it a serious no-brainer application for everyone - and I mean serious). At twice the price, the simple cross-platform issue cannot be overlooked, and yet, I wouldn't change the reliance on the Apple Keychain because it means that even if the program goes belly-up, the data are always available.

I guess I'll never know why Agile sells it for $40, but I recognize their right to do so - and I bought it - so I guess it makes sense for some of us.

If they could license the app to Apple and have it included in the Mac OS X and iPhone / iPod world by default - well, lets just say that it would be a Big Thing for convenience and Apple Simplicity in the release beyond Snow Leopard.

All in all, the 1Password application has saved me time, made multi-browser logins simple, rescued my PasswordsPlus data (into the Keychain, finally), and all without requiring me to read or think too hard. Imagine what would haved happened if I read their "3 Minute Expert Guide" - I'd probably be even better off!