eWallet by Iliium Software

I'll start with a little history. Shortly after the turn of the Millennium, one of the first programs I bought for my brand new, shiny iPaq 2210 was eWallet by Ilium Software. It was more of a digital wallet than a password manager, and it came with a desktop companion. The version was 2.1, which was soon upgraded to v3.1. It synchronized using ActiveSync by Microsoft, magic! All I had to do was place the iPaq in the cradle, and hit Sync. However, after the novelty had worn off to fill it with my bank account number, credit card data, passport number, driver's licence and the one password I used for every site and knew by heart anyway, it was soon abandoned, together with the iPaq itself. I had gotten tired of having to reload all my software after the umpteenth time I forgot to charge it in time - but I digress.

Fast forward to 2008. I found myself the owner of an iPod Touch, which made my once cute lill iPaq look like a washing machine all of a sudden. After some browsing in the iTunes store, to my surprise I found that eWallet was still going strong, and had created an app for the iPod even. That was a company after my heart, one that was right on the ball to stay abreast with the latest technologies - or so I thought. I did not hesitate to purchase it, found out I had to upgrade my ancient desktop software as well, and so I became the legal owner of version 6.1.

By then I had acquired a new country to live in, a husband, a little private enterprise and an analogue wallet full of different cards and passes. Also I had upgraded my password habits from one universal password to three different ones: one for forums, one for personal accounts such as Skype, and a fancy one for sensitive accounts like Paypal or banking.

High time to re-enter all that in eWallet! To my surprise and dismay, although eWallet looked shinier and had more bells and whistles, it still had the same flaws and omissions that already irritated me back in 2003.

In 2010 it published a major upgrade to version 7, and I was lost. Instead of a digital wallet, it had changed into a labyrinth of settings, tweaks, ribbons, confusing templates and ever changing fields. In short, it was way TOO flexible. All I wanted was enter a my data, not solve a maze! It only got worse, and so did their support. Ilium Software, probably tired of the many complaints, shut their forums and locked blog responses.

Early 2011 Ilium Software announced a vastly improved version 7.2 of eWallet. It promised great improvements in their Android support, finally support for the Chrome browser, and lots more goodies. I was enthralled - finally some justice for my first digital love: eWallet! I could not wait for the improved Android support - especially because I had traded the iPod to become the proud owner of a Nexus One (and never looked back).

Alas, it was not to be, in fact the disappointing lack of useful features after this update was the final straw for me to abandon eWallet for good. I have a feeling that Ilium Software does not have any understanding of the times we live in. There is no cloud support and although they mention Dropbox in their new eWallet-to-Go, it is basically useless for their flagship product. There is still no other way to sync my Nexus One than to mount it physically (!) to my PC. It flatly refuses to export to Android format without my phone being attached to the computer first - madness!

On top of that, their Chrome support means you have to open the eWallet program, punch in your master password, then look up the site you want to visit, hit "Visit site" and if you are lucky, it will start your browser and enter the data for you. If you change your password, heaven help you if you forget to change it in eWallet as well... or you will find yourself using the "reset my forgotten password" a LOT. And then of course you'd have to wire up your Android to stay in tune with your desktop - no thank you.

In conclusion, I finally decided to forget about my self-imposed loyalties, and reluctantly abandoned eWallet for good and started looking for a better solution.