8 reasons to use 1Password that don't involve storing passwords

Macworld 8 reasons to use 1Password that don't involve storing passwords

Available for Mac, iOS, Windows, and Android, 1Password is a must-have for desktop and mobile users seeking equal parts online security and convenience. But there's far more to this software than its single-purpose name might imply.

1Password owners managing only logins and passwords are missing out on tons of other goodies already bundled inside the desktop versions. (The mobile versions require a paid Pro upgrade to unlock some additional features.) Read on and learn how to make your old password manager perform a few new tricks!

Credit cards

Sure, 1Password takes the heavy lifting out of logging into your favorite websites, but it does an equally fabulous job filling in payment details for online stores—no matter how many different credit or debit cards you happen to use.

Managing credit cards on the iPad is just as easy as passwords with 1Password.

1Password also goes far beyond the basic details of Apple's own iCloud Keychain, allowing shoppers to store a wealth of additional information, including the issuing bank, toll-free and international contact numbers, interest rate, PIN codes, and cash withdrawal or credit limits.

Pro tip: Jot down eligible rewards categories in the Notes field of each card to see where you can accumulate the most points while shopping.

Secure notes

We're big fans of Evernote, but if you're looking to reduce the number of apps on your devices, 1Password's built-in Secure Notes could be just the ticket. While not as robust as Evernote, 1Password secures notes with the same tamper-proof authenticated encryption used for passwords, along with any files attached to those bits of data. Like other 1Password categories, users can also add tags, making information easier to find in a search.

Add a secure element to taking notes by using 1Password instead of Apple's built-in app.

Pro tip: Tick the star icon to add frequently used notes to your Favorites for faster access.

Membership and loyalty cards

Between frequent flyer programs and retail loyalty cards, key rings are used less for unlocking doors and more as a place to store plastic barcode widgets. But how many of those do you actually need to carry in your pocket? How about zero?

Unload all the plastic from your key ring by porting those loyalty card numbers to 1Password instead.

1Password includes a pair of convenient Memberships and Reward Programs categories for this very purpose, which can be used to enter all of those digits and potentially free up space on your keychain or in your wallet.

Pro tip: Next time you rent a car or book a flight online, leave those cards at home—you'll have them safely stored inside the mobile app, should you need to look them up again.

Online identities

Between work and home, many of us now have more than one identity online—for example, freelancers might prefer to have payments and related correspondence sent to a work address (even if it's just a P.O. box), while personal items such as credit card and utility bills go directly to a house or apartment.

You don't have to have a secret identity to make use of 1Password's Identities feature.

Web browsers typically aren't great about remembering credentials for more than one user at a time, but 1Password is more than up to this task. Simply create a separate item in the Identities category, give it a unique name, and the next time you need to choose a specific online identity, just select the corresponding entry.

Pro tip: Set up the initial identity, then use the Duplicate option and edit accordingly to save keystrokes for new entries.

Licenses and passports

We're not yet living in a future where smartphones can replace physical identification cards such as a state driver's license or government-issued passport, but that doesn't mean it's not a good idea to have the information represented on those documents securely backed up, should they become lost or stolen.

Use 1Password to keep a virtual backup of passports and ID cards for the entire family.

1Password once again comes to the rescue, with dedicated Driver's License and Passports categories specially built for storing details from these sensitive documents.

Pro tip: Scan your originals and attach to their electronic counterparts, rather than carrying around photocopies while traveling overseas.

Software licenses

Although the Mac App Store has largely eliminated the need for serial numbers or license keys for new software, there are still plenty of titles sold outside of Apple's virtual storefront, with 1Password is a great way to manage important ownership details.

1Password can also wrangle serial numbers and license keys for software purchased outside the Mac App Store.

1Password can keep track of version numbers, purchase and support information, and how much the software cost, all with a colorful icon pulled straight from the application itself.

Pro tip: Create new entries quickly by dragging the application onto Software Licenses, which also extracts the current version number at the same time.

Social Security cards

By this point, it shouldn't be much of a surprise to discover 1Password includes a category dedicated to storing Social Security numbers—the nine digits all Americans are assigned soon after birth, and which are now required when verifying employment, borrowing money, or checking a credit score.

Keep your Social Security Number safe at home and let 1Password remember those digits for the next time.

Many security experts advise consumers to keep original Social Security cards safely locked away at home, so if your memory isn't what it used to be, rely on 1Password to get the job done instead. Pro tip: Add entries for the entire family, including elderly parents or grandparents under your care.

Bank accounts

Not everyone needs more than one bank account, but for those who do, 1Password is once again a godsend, securely storing account, routing, and PIN code numbers for checking or savings accounts—particularly handy for a new generation of bank customers who have little need for paper checks.

No matter how many bank accounts you have, 1Password will keep their details safe and secure.

Pro tip: Don't forget bank address and SWIFT codes, which you'll need prior to receiving domestic or international wire transfers.

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5 things you need to know about big data

TechRadar: All latest feeds 5 things you need to know about big data

Introduction

Big in name and big in nature, big data is a technology buzzword that isn't going away any time soon. ABI Research thinks that big data spending on a global basis exceeded $31 billion (around £20.8 billion, or AU$40.2 billion) in 2013 and will motor on to hit $114 billion (around £76.6 billion, or AU$148 billion) in 2018, and yet there are many who are still befuddled as to what big data actually is and why it might be worth that eye-watering amount in just three years time.

1. What is it?

Purely and simply it's a term used to describe the huge data sets that are being produced by the digital processes and social media exchanges that are currently increasing by the bucket-load every minute of every day. It's a mish-mash of both structured, semi-structured and unstructured data that cannot be handled by regular databases or software, and instead has to be funnelled through specific analytical programs.

Processing big data is already big business and the lack of skills out there to properly use the analytics to decipher actionable insights is something that is still a very real problem, even though we are reasonably far along when it comes to understanding what big data is.

2. Solid analytics are the key

Drawing any sort of business advantage from big data means having solid analytics in place as well as the skills to use them. Possessing a successful analytics model means that your business will be able to find new correlations to solve problems, identify trends and basically make more money.

A succinct analysis of big data analytics was given by Michael Watson of the Supply Chain Quarterly, where he wrote that there are three different types of analytics: descriptive, predictive and prescriptive. Descriptive presents data in a way that lets you know what is going on in the place the data is drawn from. Predictive describes the way you can take data and make better predictions using it. Prescriptive, meanwhile, concerns using data combined with the subsequent predictions to take action that will improve business.

Marrying these together and asking the right questions at the beginning of the whole analytical process are key to making sure your model works and delivers the results you desire.

3. Internet of Things contributes a lot

Believe it or not, Gartner has a Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies and after topping the table in 2013, big data has slipped behind another of the technology buzzwords of the moment - the Internet of Things. Even though this is the case, big data has a huge amount to benefit from when it comes to the IoT.

Cisco's conservative estimate on the IoT mentions that the number of connected devices will hit 21 billion by 2018 and the bad news for any unprepared firms is that there is going to be zettabyte upon zettabyte of data to keep a handle on. Making sense of all this data is something that is still proving to be a huge challenge and the skills gap, which we will come to in the next slide, is something that has the potential to make or break the success of the data drawn from all these "things".

4. There is still a big skills gap

Data scientists are tasked with handling the data sets on offer and producing insights from them, and for anyone looking to kick off a career the news is good: the skills gap for data scientists is currently huge. Research from Gartner found that 85% of companies on the Fortune 500 list will fail to exploit data in an effective way in 2015 and deciding how to bridge this gap is critical for enterprises to realise the benefits of big data.

Accenture, meanwhile, carried out a year-long research project on data scientists and found that the United States will create around 39,000 new jobs for analytical experts through 2015, but will only actually be able to assign candidates to 23% of those roles.

An easy way to fill in the gaps is, obviously, to train and promote from within although this depends on the right training being in place as well as having the "right" people within the organisation in the first place. The other way is education.

One such educational institution trying to help is the European Data Science Academy, which is an online platform for training data scientists across Europe. It claims that the demand for professionals with the skills to manage big data will grow by 160% by 2020 and has already secured a €2.9 million (£2.2 million, or $3.25 million) investment from the EU to run a range of courses, which get underway in late 2015. More schemes like this are also in the pipeline and they can only help to address the shortfall.

5. Rich data could be even more important

Dr. Rado Kotorov, chief innovation officer at Information Builders, put it well when he described the difference between big data and rich data as the way that crude and refined oil differ. Rich data, in layman's terms, is what comes out when data from different systems is combined and given a context so that it becomes a practical proposition for businesses and individuals.

It solves one of the main complaints about big data in that the unstructured data produced doesn't provided a detailed enough insight compared to the level of contextualised data that is possible with rich data. The fact that rich data needs big data in order to exist means that big data will never go away, yet for the higher level of insights and benefits, rich data has to be a part of the picture.

One of the big concerns about rich data, however, will ultimately be that it is more detailed and as such could present a privacy risk to consumers that unstructured big data may not end up doing. What this could well present is a situation where consumers become even more guarded over their personal data and choose to give less up to the companies asking for it, and perhaps even use it as a bargaining tool in the future.

"In the future, people may choose to control information that they are creating and then monetise this back to companies – this may be in the form of lowering their bills or getting better service quality from one provider," admitted Matt Pfeil, Chief Customer Officer at DataStax.

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