This review originally appeared within iLounge’s iOS Gems series within the compilation article, iPhone Gems: All 22 Wallet Apps, Reviewed. Additional details may be found in the original article.
Saphir ($8) is a slightly more generic attempt at a personal information manager with a couple of moderately interesting twists. Most notably, you can specify either a traditional text-based password or a graphical password.
The text-based password works as expected, and Saphir enforces a minimum length of six characters in this case. A graphical password, on the other hand, involves tapping on a series of at least five images to form your password. When you next want to log in, you simply tap the same series of images again, in the same order.
While this may be an interesting twist for users who have a hard time remembering words or numbers, it does come across as more of a gimmick than a practical feature, particularly when viewed in light of Saphir’s other features—or lack thereof—and its $8 price tag.
Specifically, Saphir provides no concept of fields or record types. Everything is a basically a note with a title and a free-form text field. As an added bonus, a picture can be added from your camera or your iPhone photo library to any item, although we’re not entirely sure what practical purpose this serves in a personal information storage app.
At a much lower price tag, Saphir might be an interesting option for users who are looking for something a bit unique, but for $8 we find it substantially overpriced for what it actually offers.
