I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: 1Password is quite possibly the single most handy app I’ve ever used. (And don’t take the word handy too lightly…read on…)

Some apps are great because they let you do things you could never do before (SketchUp comes to mind). Then there are apps that truly empower you to do great tasks that were before unruly or much more difficult (Aperture fits nicely in this category.) However, there are certain applications that fall into an entirely different classification. They are so handy, so incredibly useful in an each-and-every-day sort of way, that they simply fall into the background of your working life. You don’t think of them consciously. They are like a great chisel to a seasoned carpenter. It just fits nicely in his bag and he grabs it without thinking whenever he needs it, which is often. It doesn’t break, it’s always at the ready, and it doesn’t require nearly any thinking.

Applications like LaunchBar, Textmate and a few others fit into this lofty, yet quiet, position. Well 1Password without a doubt (in my mind) deserves to be in this category, and deserves to be used by everyone who owns a Mac.

Literally every day since I’ve used (and I do use it every day) I find myself actually smiling and thinking to myself, “wow…that used to be so hard…” And yet it’s the kind of app that, on the surface, doesn’t seem like that big of a deal. Their website design is ho-hum, the name is slightly misleading, and it’s so incredibly utilitarian that you just don’t really want to pony-up and buy it because it seems so, well, utilitarian.

Those of you who, like me, discovered LaunchBar or Quicksilver probably thought the same thing about those at first too. Launching apps and other stuff…big deal! Same with Textmate. (Who needs another text editor!?) However once you used those, you could never go back. You need 1Password. 

Instead of rambling on for 4 more paragraphs, let me just give a bullet list of its greatness and let you go download it: 

• Uses Mac OS X’s keychain, but makes it awesome.
  
• Can store any kind of useful info: credit card, website forms, bank info, and on and on.
• Generates amazingly strong passwords for anything
• Then enables you to enter those passwords into the site they belong to, as easy as hitting ONE keystroke…because it…
• Integrates INTO your browser (as a plugin), so that all your passwords are available no matter which browser you’re in.
• Generates an actual embedded iPhone web app so that they whole thing is available and secure on the iPhone. (This you have to see to believe).
• Literally works to auto-complete any website on the iPhone. My jaw dropped when I first used this. Anyone who has struggled to tap out some bizarre password on an iPhone will know what I’m talking about. 
  

Alright, enough of me, go get it: 1Password.

And no, alas, they do not have an affiliate program. I’m just raving because I like it so much.