FileMaker today shipped Bento 4 for Mac, now available on the Mac App Store, and Bento 1.1 for iPhone, and Bento 1.1 for iPad. With many new features including the ability to print labels, export libraries with data, automatically add geographical locations to records and lock down forms, Bento 4 is a major next step for the popular personal database family.
“People just love the way Bento helps them organize their lives – especially their work tasks like managing contacts and tracking projects,” said Ryan Rosenberg, vice president of marketing and services for FileMaker, Inc., in the press release. “We’ve enhanced the entire product line: Bento for Mac, Bento for iPad, and Bento for iPhone to provide you with a major productivity boost at your desk and when you’re on the go.”
Bento 4 for Mac
In Bento 4, you can create custom labels or choose from more than 250 ready-to-use Avery and Dymo label formats for mailing labels, inventory tags, name badges, file folders and many other uses. Labels can be customized with information from your database and with images.
“With built-in support for a wide array of the most popular Avery labels, Bento makes it easy to print labels for business or home use,” said Brenda Dillon, Group Product Manager for Avery Dennison Office Products, in the press release.
Sharing databases is simpler than ever using Bento 4. For the first time, you can export Bento libraries populated with data and share these with other users. Now sending a complete library to another Bento user is as easy as emailing a file. You can also share your great ideas with the world by sending your custom Bento templates directly to the popular Bento Template Exchange from within Bento 4. The Bento Template Exchange features over 800 free downloadable templates that bring to life the huge variety of uses for Bento.
Bento 4 is faster and easier to use. With faster launch times, the new version allows you to lock forms to prevent unwanted changes to a layout, easily switch from Table view to Form view, search by date ranges, and automatically create media fields.
While many software products allow you map an address, Bento goes one step further by automatically capturing the locations where your activities occur. With the addition of a new location field type, Bento 4 will automatically log your exact location using WiFi, GPS, or cell tower triangulation, depending on which Mac or iOS device you may be using when you enter or modify a record. With automatic location fields, you can record the location of site inspections, log customer visits, track travel sites, or capture survey locations.
Bento 1.1 for iPhone and Bento 1.1 for iPad
Bento for iPhone and Bento for iPad have both received significant updates. You can now record voice memos into media fields on your mobile devices and tie them to your records, perfect for capturing events, logging meetings for later review, and just capturing notes without typing. Voice memos can be synched with Bento 4 for the Mac.
Bento for Mac users can make more use of their information on the Bento for iPhone and Bento for iPad. Now you can sync iCal tasks from the Mac, edit simple list data on your iPhone, and use related records to link libraries.
Other enhancements include multi-tasking and improved support for the iPhone Retina display.
For the first time ever, Bento for iPhone and Bento for iPad will be available in multiple languages including: Japanese, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Dutch.
Pricing and availability
Available immediately, Bento 4 is affordably priced at a suggested retail of US$49, or $99 for a family pack of five licenses, and is now available on the Mac App Store, FileMaker Store and Apple retail stores. Current owners of Bento 1, 2 and 3 for Mac are eligible for a $20 U.S. rebate.
Bento 1.1 for iPhone and Bento 1.1 for iPad are priced at $4.99. Each are sold separately and are available today on the Apple App Store. Current owners of Bento for iPhone or Bento for iPad are eligible for a free update via the App Store.
Bento 4 for Mac is available in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Dutch and Japanese.
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 essential information. The company’s products are the FileMaker Pro line – versatile database software for teams and organizations, for Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad and the web – and Bento, the personal database for Mac, iPhone and iPad. FileMaker, Inc. is a subsidiary of Apple.
Source: FileMaker, Inc.
It is time that Bento gets folded into iWork (completing the offering to word processor – spreadsheed – presentation tool – database, much like Word/Excel/Powerpoint/Access). Ever since Filemaker became a part of Apple, Bento has had the look and feel of a real Apple product. It is a remarkably intuitive little database package and I’m sure it would get much wider adoption if it became part of that productivity suite.
Um, before FileMaker Inc. existed, it was named Claris, and was also a wholly-owned subsidiary of Apple. So, it has always been “a part of Apple.” Bento didn’t even exist before Claris was renamed FileMaker Inc. FileMaker Pro has been a great database application for a long time.
I agree with you, though, that Bento is a great consumer-level data organizer. Making it part of iWork seems fairly sensible, but they’d have to figure out how to coordinate, since FileMaker Inc. is run separately, even though wholly-owned.
How secure is Bento on the iPhone? could a hack open up the files, how good is the encryption anyone know?
BENTO FINALLY HAS LABELS!!!! Yea! My database needs are pretty simple in my business, but I have had to use FileMaker Pro (which was total overkill) because Bento could not produce mailing labels.
I’ll give Bento another look.
Has anyone been able to buy this upgrade? i keep apparently being sent around in a circle – select – cart – select.
…still waiting for filemaker to sync with addressbook…
Yesterday I brought over my records from FileMaker Pro 7 and loaded them into a trial version of Bento 4. FileMaker Pro is a truly great app but is really overkill for my needs.
So far I am really liking what I see in Bento 4 and feel that it will be a better fit for my simple needs. I find it easy to manipulate, pretty intuitive and it offers me some options of interfacing with other apps such as iCal that I believe will prove useful in my business.
Scott, any further view on the transfer of FMP7 to Bento? How did you go about it? I’m scared … Graeme