In the past, all you needed to remember was the PIN to your ATM card. Now, everywhere you go, you get asked the same thing – user name, password, email, and credit card information. How does one keep track of all of this information without going bonkers? Introducing Spb Wallet, an advanced solution which brings chaos to order by creating virtual cards that meet nearly every occasion that allows you to access information quickly and easily. Aimed to compliment and perhaps even replace your wallet, Spb’s latest creation brings you one step closer to a paperless society where your cellphone and PDA is your wallet! Is Spb Wallet the new king of electronic wallets?

Find out as Spb Wallet goes on tour, here at the JAMM labs!

Installation and Registration:

Spb Wallet consists of two parts – the PC desktop application with web browser plug ins and the Pocket PC application. Running the main installer will install both the PC and the pocket PC (PPC) versions. If you use the CAB installer, only the PPC version will be installed. To register the program on the desktop, go to ’Help’ and select ’Registration’. Then enter your license key which Spb provided you.

To register on the PPC, just tap the giant ’Menu’ soft button and select ’Registration’. Enter your serial number that Spb provided you and you’re all set!

NOTE: The registration key is the same for both the desktop and the PPC versions of the software but you will need to enter the key in both the desktop and the PPC versions of the program.

Using Spb Wallet (Desktop and PPC):

Starting the program:

One of the things I find most useful about Spb Wallet is that after you learn to use the desktop version, you’ll also know how to use the Pocket PC version as they truly feel the same in every aspect with the exception that the PPC version has some screen size limitations and so some things are viewed in an extra window and will require one or more taps. Starting the program up you’ll either be greeted with the welcome screen (shown above) or the unlock wallet screen (shown below). The unlock wallet screen appears first if you have already created a wallet.

Creating a new wallet:

After selecting ‘Create New Wallet’, you’ll be greeted with the a dialog box to name your new wallet. These files do not need to be converted and can by transferred and used freely between the desktop and the PPC versions of Spb Wallet. After this, you’ll be asked to select a password (photos below). Spb Wallet provides you a gauge to see how strong your password is. The key to a strong password is the use of at least 6-7 alpha numeric characters including upper and lowercase. The use of special characters strengthens your password further. You can also select a password hint to be displayed after a certain amount of incorrect password entries. Unfortunately, there is no way to create a random password for a new wallet – you’ll be able to change your password with a random one later using the random password generating tool. After selecting your password, you’ll be asked whether or not you want to allow this wallet to be synced. That’s it! You now have a blank wallet that is ready for virtual cards to be added.

Spb Wallet uses AES 256-bit encryption. The pitfall for Spb Wallet’s security is the lack of protection against brute force attacks. They really should force a cool down period after x number of failed login attempts. One well thought out feature is that after a certain period of inactivity, your virtual wallet will lock itself to prevent somebody else from gaining access to your precious info (this includes locking of the IE integration bar which will be discussed later). When you exit Spb Wallet, the clipboard will be cleared to ensure security.

Main My Cards Screen:

Now we are presented with the main ’My Cards’ screen of Spb Wallet. This is the place where you can view all the contents of your wallets – each individual virtual card as well as folder categories. As you can see, this is where the desktop version differs a bit from the PPC version as it takes two screens to display the information on the PPC (shown below) and only one screen to show the same thing on the desktop version (see above). Upon selecting an individual card on the PPC, a bigger full screen card appears. Following the standard of digital wallets, sensitive information is masked when you open a digital card. Be sure to check to see if the area is clear from prying eyes before unmasking your information.

There are 3 views to the PPC version. Pictured on the above left is the ’Folders’ view. There also is the ’Large Icons’ and ’Most Used Cards’ view which is shown below respectively from left to right.

A very handy feature of Spb’s Wallet is the ability for smart fields. These allow you to goto a website, direct dial, SMS, or send to clipboard various information from certain fields. In the example below, the telephone number can be directly dialed by just a tap / hold until the dialog box comes up with the option to dial.

Creating a new card:

Creating a new card is easy. First you select ’File’ then ’New Card’. You then get to choose the template to be used as well as name your card. After that you get to fill in whatever fields there are. Each template has its own set of fields so be sure to choose the best template. If you don’t find a template that you want, you can create a new one (we’ll talk about that later). One of the best things about Spb Wallet that other wallet programs lack is the ability to support attachments. At times, such as in the case of software keys, the publisher may use a key file rather than a serial number to handle program registration. In these cases, the attachments feature really shines as your attachments will be kept safe and sound being embedded into the wallet file. Beware though as if you do attach a lot of stuff, you’ll have a wallet that could get very big – so big in fact that you’ll have to store the wallet on removable storage media such as an SD or CF card when you transfer it over to your PPC.

Pre-made templates:

Spb Wallet comes with a sheer amount of pre-made templates. Getting to the templates screen is simple on the desktop, but on the PPC you’ll need to go to [Menu], Tools, then select Templates (more information on the ’Tools’ menu will be covered shortly).

Creating custom templates:

This is painless as you can create a template from scratch or from an existing template. To get this done, goto ’File’, ’New Template…’ on the desktop or [Menu], ’File’, ’New Template…’ on the PPC. From here, you’ll be presented with all the options of making the template from using an existing template as a base, what fields to add (see below right for PPC photo), how the virtual card should appear, as well as any notes that need to be added (see bottom left photo). These templates can then be shared by the use of importing templates. This can be accomplished by going to ’File’, ’Import Template…’ on the desktop or [Menu], ’File’, ’Import Template…’ on the PPC.

Spb Wallet provides the ability to edit exactly how each virtual card looks. Under the ’View’ tab of the ’New Template’ screen there is an ’Edit View’ button. When pressed you can arrange everything to your heart’s content from field layouts to backgrounds (see photos below).

The ’Tools’ Menu:

The ’Tools’ menu allows access to several important functions:

• Password generator
• Options
• Backup
• IE integration (Desktop Only)
• Importing other wallet files (Desktop Only)
• Quick search (PPC Only)

Password generator:

The ’Password Generator…’ is quite a nifty tool. This tool allows you to select the strength of the password and even has an option to make sure that the characters chosen can be pronounced. This feature is great especially with the desktop version where you can create cards directly from the web browser (more on this in a moment).

Options:

The PPC counterpart to this is found under [Menu], ’Options…’ rather than ’Tools’, ’Options…’. The options that you can choose include general options with some such as ’Allow to minimize Spb Wallet to tray’ are specific only to the desktop. The majority of the options are applicable for both desktop and PPC.

Backup:

Backup simply allows you to create an additional copy of your current wallet. It’s a useful feature and it’s always good to have backups! Just remember to copy your backups over to another location from time to time and not to rely solely on desktop to PPC synchronizations.

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IE integration (Desktop Only):

A unique feature that blows other wallets out of the water  is Spb Wallet’s password manager for your web browser. When the wallet is unlocked you’ll have access to the Spb Wallet toollbar. If it was locked, all the items would be greyed out. From here if you click on go to website, you can see a good amount the website links which is associated with your wallet. Clicking on them will take you to the webpage and automatically input any login information that you have stored. You can also ’Capture Card’ login information by going to a webpage, entering your login info, and then selecting ’Capture Card’ which will automatically create an editable card in your wallet. Yowzers! As always, make sure if you use this feature that you set your wallet to autolock. The last thing you want is any passerby to use your computer and start checking your email…or worse….

Importing other wallet files (Desktop Only):

You know a company is aggressive when they implement a  feature that imports competitors’ electronic wallets (the first I’ve seen). Spb Wallet can import wallets from eWallet (Freewallet, 3, 4, and 5), FlexWallet, and CodeWallet. I only had the opportunity to test out the import feature with eWallet. The results of the import were quite impressive as it would take the closest match to one of Spb’s own templates. Any additional information that Spb Wallet could not find a suitable field for would be placed in the ’notes’ section of a virtual card.

Quick search (PPC Only):

If you goto [Menu], ’Search…’ you bring up Spb Wallet’s quick search feature where you can find a specific card by just typing in the name of the card a little at a time.

Conclusion:

Spb Wallet is certainly a complete wallet solution that will give its competitors a run for their money. Not just another Wallet program, Spb Wallet, took a hard look at it’s competition and added some notable features such as IE integration with a password manager, file attachements, clearing of the clipboard upon exit, and a "most used cards view". It also comes with a larger selection of fancier pre-made templates right out of the box. With an added security feature of forcing a timeout after a certain amount of failed login attempts, this solution would be practically perfect. So is Spb Wallet the king of electronic wallets? I certainly would say so….at least for now…

Name: Spb Wallet
Version: 1.0
Platform: WM 2003 / WM5 / WM6 Pocket PC
Developer: Spb Software House
Available From: JAMM Store and Spb Software House
Price: $29.95
Trial: Yes – 15 Days
Device Used for Review: Dell Axim X51v

Technorati Tags: Spb Software House, Spb Wallet, Review, JAMM, Just Another Mobile Monday 

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