Note Studio
FAQ
When I enter a password it should be obscured! Isn't this bad security?
On the Palm, when you enter the password, you see it in plain text. This is different to what you may be used to on the PC,
where passwords are represented with asterisks. People are often surprised by this, but it is done in accordance with Palm
guidelines.
There are two main reasons for showing plaintext on the Handheld.
- Firstly: Because handwriting recognition is not perfect, it is important that you actually see what you have written. Otherwise, you could encrypt a page using a password, but due to a handwriting recognition problem, not know what password had been used. This would result in unrecoverable data.
- Secondly: Hiding passwords using asterisks was invented for desktop computers. In some environments, it's difficult to prevent other people seeing your monitor. So obscuring passwords makes sense. By their nature, handheld PDAs do not have this problem. You are generally able to angle them so that other people are not able to see what you are writing. There is no real need for obscuring passwords. You do not need to obscure the password from yourself.