“It integrates fully with iCal and Address Book and now also with Apple Mail—although you do have to drag messages to Bento so there’s no automatic updating of a message list in a Smart mailbox, for example. For most purposes, Bento 2 offers just the right feature mix to convince individual users of using this database application for most of their daily and business tasks and projects,” Vlietinck reports.
“While Bento 2 still is limited in its capabilities when you look at it from the point of view of someone who is used to working with FileMaker and beyond, there’s no denying Bento is so easy and powerful enough that I see it being used by even experienced database users for their own personal purposes. Or let me put it this way: there’s a demo ready for download: it is a good idea to try it out and see for yourself,” Vlietinck reports.
Full review here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Brawndo Drinker” for the heads up.]
Well, speaking as a FileMaker expert, the guy that wrote this article knows absolutely nothing about which he speaks.
Bento is a “toy” database compared to it’s bigger sibling FileMaker. it’s good for your mum or dad to keep track of recipes or their baseball card collections respectively, but not anywhere near the functionality required for even a small business. It still doesn’t have mail merge capabilities, which are fairly essential for even the smallest business.
He doesn’t understand FileMaker at all it seems. He is wrong about how hard or easy it is to create relationships in FileMaker. He is wrong about how robust or non-robust FileMaker itself is. He is wrong about themes, etc. etc.
Bento is a great product, but to compare it, nay to *equate* it to FileMaker and propose that it’s a business ready tool is just a joke.
Have you studied Bento 2? Are there, in fact, any “major” enhancements compared to the original Bento? Your perspective, as a knowledgeable skeptic, would be helpful.
Thanks!
Jake
Jeremy wrote: “Bento is a “toy” database compared to it’s bigger sibling FileMaker.”
Sounds like what all my computer nerd friends told me when I bought my first Mac in 1985. “The Mac is a toy.” They were using DOS! Puts things in perspective these days, eh?
Of course, FileMaker is a professional database application, but Bento is not a “toy”. Bento may have its limitations, but it is very powerful indeed. I am not be a FileMaker expert, but I have a lot of years and hours of training under my belt using FileMaker for my own personal business databases, and I am always frustrated with how I have to recreate the wheel every time I want to create a new database.
And I’m sure the “look” of the database is not that important to you, but I’m tired of all the workarounds I have to do to try to get FileMaker to look like a modern day OS X application and not something with OS 9 scroll bars. If it’s a database I’m going to have my nose in day in and day out, I want it to be inspiring to me on a visual level, too. The ease with which one can create an attractive database in Bento is uncanny compared to all the steps and workarounds one has to do to create something similar in FileMaker.
Even simple functionality such as sortable columns. Takes time to get the functionality in FileMaker, it just happens in Bento.
Sure, there’s a long wish list for Bento (scripting being on the top of my list), but Bento 2 has come far enough that I have decided to totally take advantage of this attractive, easy-to-design database application, and work within its limitations. As a result, I am finding myself creating all kinds of databases that I always wished I had but never attempted to create because of all the time it would take to create a pleasing solution in FileMaker.
I am not dissing FileMaker. FileMaker has it’s place in the professional world where there is a lot of time and resources to create a complex solution. But that doesn’t make Bento a toy.
For me, Bento has been a breath of fresh air for my database needs. It is fast and easy to use, and certainly over time will get even more powerful. And I love the fact that it takes advantage of OS X technologies (how easy is it to link to iCal and Address Book in FileMaker solutions? generally you have to recreate the wheel and create your own address book in FMP!) and doesn’t have to be beholden to cross-platform compatibility with Windows, which would only dumb it down.
I have one last complex database in FMP that I’m eager to rebuild in Bento 2. I may lose some scripting capabilities, but heck, it’ll be easier to add an iCal event in Bento. Once I convert that database, I will probably never touch FileMaker again.
As a Bento 1 (beta and vs. 1.0x) user I can say it is a “quick and easy”, but limited database. I’ve played around with Filemaker, (demos) and I didn’t like its GUI and the fact that it was going to take a lot of time to make a GUI that I liked. From what I’ve seen, this is more of a 1.5 version — nothing major added. Also, they have a policy (only revealed when 2.0 came out) that upgrades are the same cost as buying it new, so be aware of that. I believe that this product will probably always remain limited so that it doesn’t compete with Filemaker DB. I wish there was another company that made an easy to use DB that could progressively add features and not be worried about affecting sales of their high end product.
@Jonricmd
“I wish there was another company that made an easy to use DB that could progressively add features and not be worried about affecting sales of their high end product.”
I favor Panorama by ProVUE myself.
After all this time, they came out with a paid upgrade that doesn’t address any of the things people complained about in version one. That’s just sad. Their themes are just as lame as before, mostly unreadable with bilious pastels and low-contrast typefaces. none of which are customizable. It still mucks up your address book when you start interacting with it. Add a prefix to a name on your Christmas Card list and it will remain for eternity, making all your outgoing emails read “Mr. & Mrs. XXX and family.” It still doesn’t use any iCal data before 2006, making it useless for doing, say, medical records. I like the IDEA of an entry-level Filemaker, I just don’t think it’s been executed well at all..