FileMaker, Inc. today announced the immediate availability of Bento 3, a new version of the popular personal database for the Mac. For the first time ever, Bento 3 integrates with iPhoto from Apple allowing you to store more info about your photos and link them to contacts, projects, events and other information stored in Bento.
“Think of Bento 3 as a powerful, easy way to bring together all of your key Mac information and photos,” said Ryan Rosenberg, vice president, marketing and services, FileMaker, Inc., in the press release. “With Bento 3, we’re providing new ways for you to view and interact with your information so you can organize contacts, projects, events and even more details of your life.”
Bento 3 also delivers new ways to share your information with other Bento users. Just like sharing iTunes and iPhotos over a local area network (LAN) using Apple’s Bonjour technology, you can now share your Bento libraries with up to five users over a wired or wireless local network. You can also encrypt any field and assign passwords to secure your information inBento 3.
The new Grid view in Bento 3 delivers an innovative method of displaying thumbnails of photos, text and numeric-based information, while improved File Lists show image thumbnails, instead of just text.
With Bento 3, you can choose from 35 pre-designed, ready-to use templates thanks to the addition of 10 more templates for popular uses, including wine collecting, job hunting, home searching, vacation planning and more. In addition, the recently launched Bento Template Exchange shows off hundreds of downloadable templates designed by Bento users, so there is never a shortage of new ideas for ways to use Bento 3.
Bento 3 has a suggested list price of $49, but, for a limited time only, FileMaker is offering a $20 rebate to existing users of Bento 1 and Bento 2. Qualified customers who purchase Bento 3 through the FileMaker Store will get an instant rebate and pay just $29 for Bento 3. Qualified customers who purchase Bento 3 at an Apple store or other retailer can request a $20 rebate online. Customers who have purchased Bento 2 between August 30, 2009 and October 14, 2009 are eligible to receive Bento 3 for free. A 30-day trial version is also available at www.filemaker.com/trybento3pr.
Bento 1.0.3 for iPhone and iPod touch resolves compatibility issues related to Bento 3 for Mac and will be available soon. Current users of Bento for iPhone and iPod touch will see a notification on their device when the free update is available for download.
Bento 3 also comes in a US$99 for a family pack of five licenses and is available on the FileMaker Store. Bento 3 will also be offered at the Online Apple Store and Apple retail stores. It requires Mac OS X v.10.5.7 Leopard or higher on a Mac computer with an Intel PowerPC G5 or PowerPC G4 (867MHz or faster) processor. A minimum of 512MB of RAM and 1GB of hard drive space is recommended. A CD drive is required for installation of boxed software.
FileMaker is the leader in easy-to-use database software. Millions of people, from individuals to some of the world’s largest companies, rely on FileMaker software to manage, analyze and share vital information. The company’s products are the FileMaker Pro line — versatile database software for teams and organizations, for Windows, Mac and the Web — and Bento, the personal database for Mac, iPhone and iPod touch. FileMaker, Inc. is a subsidiary of Apple.
Source: FileMaker, Inc.
Well someone’s eventually going to say it … so I will.
Apple should buy Bento
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FileMaker is subsidiary of Apple. Inc. So Apple already owns Bento.
And obviously, just as somebody had to say it, somebody also had to respond to it.
With that out of the way, Bento is an incredibly slick tool. In many ways, it epitomises what Mac is all about. Majority of people with office jobs know how to use Word. Almost as many know how to use PowerPoint or Excel. Significantly fewer of them can use Access. People are intimidated by the idea of making and using databases, and Access doesn’t help them much with that.
Bento is totally Mac-like. It is becoming more and more like a component of iWork (if not iLife). What Apple should also do (although it doesn’t make significant difference, but still) is drop the Filemaker brand and fold all Filemaker products under the Apple umbrella (like they did with Logic, and FCP before that, and iTunes, etc). After all, they are good ambassadors for the Mac philosophy and seem to have a loyal following. This would allow them to provide software updates via Apple’s own utility, and it would also reinforce Apple’s brand (not that it needs any reinforcement these days…).
Damn you MDN!
First you cost me $1.99 for the CNN app – now $29.99 for Bento?
Hope you’re happy.
I better get to work!
————-
Sidenote:
Everybody is qualified for the rebate as shown below.
Get a $20 instant rebate when you place your order through the FileMaker Online Store.
Offer expires 28th January 2010.
I believe the $29 price is only for qualified buyers-meaning upgraders, not new Bento users.
“Significantly fewer of them can use Access. People are intimidated by the idea of making and using databases”
Uh, yes and no. You’re right, no one wants to go near Access. But how about the bigger problem for Bento: it looks amazing, what the hell do I do with this thing?
Why should I ever use a DATABASE program? Wha?
Wine Collecting?
…”Why should I ever use a DATABASE program? Wha?
Wine Collecting?”
Precisely. There are a lot of people who WANT to use their computer to do all kinds of organising around their home (party planning, home inventory, kid’s soccer team schedule, etc. They’d love to put their Mac to use, and Bento will most likely provide plenty of inspiration, especially their Templates Download page.
So, for you, it looks like a solution in desperate search for a problem. For many others, it will do what they were hoping to do with a computer ever since they bought it.
So I bought Bento 2 last year… I think I opened the app once to make a Holiday card or something.
The Apple reseller I used to go to would use FileMaker as the customer database and somehow also use it for POS purchases.
That intrigued me but still haven’t found a use for it.
There are a lot of people who WANT to use their computer to do all kinds of organising around their home (party planning
Exactly! A person can use Bento 3 to help plan his or her Windows 7 party.
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Peace.
By the way – anyone else notice how the time jumps around in the Windows 7 Party ad? Play the video in HD and watch the clock on the vent fan hood as various people speak. The older woman seems to have been the earliest speaker.
Peace.
@predrag – yeah it might be slick but what good is a database without a query function? And without a means to format output like label printing. It’s a total cop-out to rely on Address Book’s label printing function.
@ UKmacnut
I thought the same thing about using Address Book to print – but in reality it was more perception than actuality as it works perfectly fine.
As far as a Query function – what do you mean exactly? It will look up any data or contact in 2 seconds.
People are asking what you use Bento for?
– I use it for contact management and mailing lists. I mail approx 1200 postcards to clients and potential clients every single month and it is very easy to get the groups together and the labels printed.
Coming from the PC world, I used ACT! and looked high and low for something to replace it. Bento isn’t perfect but it works for my needs.
I have to use Bento, Address Book, Direct Mail Pro and iCal to replace ACT! functionality. ACT! is one ugly program but it was very useful. It was the only reason that I even installed Boot Camp. But hated using Windows so much that I eventually deleted it as well.
So how does Bento compare to, say, SOHO Organizer or DevonThink with regards to purpose and functionality?
Maybe Apple should include Bento in iWork.
In many businesses, at the front lines, many people use MS Access to solve real problems every day. They can’t wait for IT to get around to developing the database they need NOW! Read the IT press and you’ll see stories about this. I’ve also been in the same situation.
Why Access? Because it was included with MS Office for Windows. Intimidating? Maybe. But it gets the job done. Further, the basics are easy, though it is work to learn more. However, a database project can start simple, and then be improved as you learn more.
If Apple wants IWork to really compete against Office, they need to include a basic database program. Bento might be that database.
Apple Cider,
Who and where is that Apple Reseller?
Thanks
I agree qka that Bento should be part of iWork. iWork replaced Claris/Apple Works which had a database. I suspect that having Bento being a part of Filemaker, Apple can avoid ‘having’ to include it since it is a product from a ‘separate’ company.
MW: sense in that ‘It makes sense to me.
@ Yori
mymacdealer
http://www.mymacdealer.com/
Calgary, Alberta
I have bento 2 and am not impressed, for the most part it’s CSV with organization and templates… but nothing close to Access:
Relational data? nope
Data query in SQL? nope
Without those two abilities it’s fairly pointless.
And no, for those of you already typing… Relational data does not mean associating it with your Address book… Relational data means stuff like making a table for users and a table for time entry that contains a relationship to the users that you can use to query how much time a user has, etc. Don’t tell me to use the address book for that, it’s an example of the type of relational data I want to work with, that Access can work with, that Bento can’t…
Need to get off my ‘rant’ box…
What a relief! Filemaker have learnt their lesson with the upgrade policy after the big fuss last time (from Bento 1 to 2 – no discounts for upgraders, they had to pay full price like everyone else). Hoorah!
As for SOHO Organiser (or any of their products) … don’t go there. Support is non-existant. Have been waiting 4 days for a reply to some tickets I raised about serious bugs. Once bitten twice shy!
I tried Bento last summer. They claim it integrated with Address Book and iCal.
What it really did was make the addresses in Address Book show up in the side bar of the Bento as well as the events from iCal. From there you have to manually copy and past the info into text-fields within Bento. Bento would not bring the info into the fields by point and click or drag and drop.
I related my disappointment to the people at FileMaker. They basically said, ‘to bad, we’re not going to make it any easier than copy and paste. We don’t want to hear anymore about it’.
Why isn’t Bento already part of iWork?
Ha, the Bento 3 link doesn’t work. It tries to go to anrdoezrs.net, probably an ad server or click recorder. So much crap going on behind the scenes that people are unaware of. MDN has totally sold out.
@MrScrith & others
Guys, Bento is a $49 program that is just a clever way to manage contacts and similar info; it was never intended to replace a full-scale relational database such as Access. Or Filemaker Pro.
Which brings me to the point of this posting: If you really need to manage a serious amount of information, on either a PC or Mac, you ought to be using FileMaker. From its first incarnation almost 25 years ago, it has symbolized for me what great software is all about – deep, indulgent, complete and elegant (credit to G. Kawasaki).
That said, I wish Apple would include Bento in iWork; I’d pay a bit more to get it.
Flat file database…with a nice UI…wow, what a waste of money…
But, is it snappier? People who need more than Bento 3, get FileMaker Pro, the easiest relational database on the market.