Larry Garfield looks at Illium Software's eWallet, which stores just about every bit of information from a normal wallet except money. Read on to see how well it does so.
Collecting ID numbers, passwords, and other assorted bits of identification into one central location is one of the main draws of handhelds as a form of "extended PIM". Of course, programs that do so have to be very carefully written, as collecting all private information into one place becomes a lot of eggs in one basket. Illium Software's eWallet does a decent job of collecting those nuggets of information and offers an attractive interface, but is overall not as configurable as some of its competitors.
 | eWallet is attractive, but not as customizable as we'd like
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The 168 KB eWallet's interface is directly based on the List / View / Edit interface model common to most Palm applications, so the learning curve is virtually nil. Each record is a separate card or account, and the program comes with a large number of templates for common account types, including major brand names. Templates for each type of record include a variable number of fields with pre-defined labels, and some, such as credit card records, include default logos and styles for common brand names such as Mastercard and Visa. There is also a template for a free form text field.
Each record can have both visible and details fields. Details fields are not shown when viewing the card, but are visible in edit mode except on some models of Sony CLIE. Considering that those are sometimes rather important fields, that can be annoying. Each record can also have an arbitrary note attached. Field names can be edited to create custom cards that can also be saved as new templates, but there is no way to add or remove fields or change some more advanced display attributes. Text and background colors can be changed and the user can pick from 41 included icons, but company logos, border styling, etc. cannot be changed from the handheld.
In each card some records are hidden by default, such as passwords, PIN numbers, and lock combinations. They can be viewed by tapping a show/hide button on the View form, but which fields are so hidden is again not configurable. Records that have URLs in them can be set to auto-open the URL in a web browser when tapped, complete with password fields auto-filled from the program.
The program itself is password protected with an alphanumeric password of arbitrary length. The user can also flag individual categories to be protected as well. Tapping the "Lock" button on the List view at any time will lock the user out of any category so flagged until they again input their password. The program also encrypts all data using 128-bit RC4 encryption.
A desktop component is available as well, which duplicates the functionality of the handheld application. The desktop application actually goes a step further than the handheld, however, and allows the user to change the border style and logo for cards, although they do not transfer to the handheld resulting in a difference between records on each device. It can also attach sounds to a card to play when it is opened, although that does not transfer to the handheld either. Otherwise it is functionally equivalent to the handheld, including the same encryption features.
Availability
Illium Software eWallet 3.1 is available now for $29.95 USD. A limited-functionality trial version is also available. It runs on any Palm OS 4 or higher handheld, although does not take advantage of advanced display features such as extended screens.
Conclusion
eWallet offers a fair set of features and an attractive interface. However, much of the extra eyecandy is offset by the restrictions on configurability. The included default templates are extensive, but limited by the fact that they can only be edited marginally. The encryption is well integrated and does not get in the way of functionality. Overall, eWallet offers a good but not best-of-breed tool for storing and filing sensitive information.
- What's positive: Attractive interface, clean and flexible encryption
- What's negative: Limited customizability
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