Meet the Logio Secure Password Organizer from Atek, a credit card sized piece of flimsy plastic that couldn’t feel cheaper if it had been conceived as a Christmas Cracker novelty. The $30 device was sent to me at the end of last year and today I finally managed to struggle through the blister pack (better constructed than the item itself) to take a first (and last) look.
The idea of the organizer is that you keep your passwords in it. This
is a good thing. As the package blurb tells us, short, easy to remember
passwords are insecure, but longer passwords are of course harder to
remember. The organizer stores the details for you in three
fields — website, login and password. The whole lot is protected by a
master password, required when you switch the machine on.
It sounds fine, but in practice it was too frustrating to even enter one login. But let’s move back a little. First, you need to slide in the standard CR2016 battery, supplied (although wrapped in many, many layers of polythene).
The little carrying drawer popped out and headed, along with the battery, under the sofa. I rescued both and fired the thing up. You automatically enter the setup mode, which means choosing a long master password. And that’s where the trouble starts. You don’t know if you are entering numbers or letters, and you need both for a strong password. As it was just a test, I hit the numbers one through nine in order. It turns out that I actually entered letters. Hmmph.
Next you need to calibrate the display contrast, beep volume and so on, until we get to the main screen. There, you enter details as you would on a mobile phone, tapping each button several times to select letters. Thankfully you get a dedicated .com button, but this seems rather pointless, as does the http:// option: it’s not like you’ll actually be using these urls — they’re just reminders.
After that it started to get really annoying. As if the poor input method weren’t bad enough, the whole unit creaks and cracks as you use it, and the buttons themselves feel about as long-lasting as a piece of rice paper in a rainstorm. But hey! There are some classy accessories. Number one, the faux-leather case:
A thing of soft, plush beauty, we suspect the reason for the case is to protect your delicate pocket lining in case of the inevitable chip and cog-spilling meltdown. Next is the stylish lanyard strap:
The strap is long enough to encircle your neck, so you can have the organizer with you at all times. On the other end is a fine plastic filament which should be threaded through a hole in the plastic card. My review version came with another little section of filament taped to the end. I assume it is a spare, and appreciate it, although I think the filament will easily outlast the device itself.
This piece of tat seems more suited to another era, a time when the sign-up gift from the bank was a credit card sized calculator and you actually got excited by it. Now we have software to do this sort of thing, from the Mac’s built in keychain to the excellent paid software 1Password, which costs just $10 more and does a whole lot extra.
Oh, one more thing. The Logio holds just 200 logins. While a very low number, even that is too much. Imagine trying to enter all that information using this interface. I think I’ll just stick to using my dog’s name as my single sign-on, everywhere (note to would-be identity thieves — I don’t have a dog).
Product page [Atek]
