Digital Trends

APC Biometric Password Manager

April 21st, 2004 | by Jeff Fila

What's Not to Like?

In just a week of using the BioPod, we had saved usernames and passwords for 43 different Websites and applications, saving us countless keystrokes on a daily and weekly basis. So what's not to like? There were a few annoyances we encountered, but nothing that should be too much of a concern to most people.

First of all, the application is a resource hog. We're not sure what in particular makes it so big, but the software certainly takes up some resources. We noted at least four applications that are running on startup; WebLink.exe, scureapp.exe, OPXApp.exe and omniServ.exe; which combined take up about 29MB of memory. By comparison, while writing this review, explorer.exe took up about 30MB and Microsoft Word took up about 24MB of memory. With enough memory you should be fine, but users with lower-end systems and older operating systems may experience slowdowns.

Secondly, the applications are hard to shut down. There is no shutdown or exit command from the system tray. While some users may prefer to have the software running at all times, there are some occasions, such as when playing a game or installing software, when you may want to disable OmniServ and the Biopod software package. The only way to do so is to end the processes from your task manager.

And lastly, we experienced lockups on our test system when we booted up and the Biopod reader was not hooked up to the USB port. Granted, most users will not unplug the device as often as we did while testing, but we thought it was worth mentioning anyway.

Conclusion

APC's Biometric Password Manager is a small, relatively inexpensive device that will appeal to a wide range of users. At around $50, it is an accessory that will save you a lot of time and frustration. Imagine never having to remember or type in a username and password again — the Biopod allows just that.

With Windows only compatibility, Mac and Linux users miss out on the benefits of the Biopod, and the device is quite beneficial. The device does an excellent job of scanning and identifying fingerprints, is easy to setup and incredibly easy to use. It allows for plenty of users and finger scans to accommodate a shared home or office PC.

Once you use the Biopod you may never want to, or have to, type a password again.