I fell in love with Bento 3 for OS X and for my Apple iPad. Filemaker just released the update to Bento 4 which included some of the following:

• Label Printing
• Form Printing Options
• Export Templates with Data
• Easy Date Searching
• Post Templates Directly to the Bento Template Exchange

I won’t bore you with my tales of how productive I had previously become with Bento 3 and with Bento on my Apple iPad; however let’s just say that I’m more organized when I’m late to my appointments.

Available immediately, Bento 4 is affordably priced at a suggested retail of $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.

And the Apple iPhone and Apple iPad apps have been updated to 1.1 as of March 16th and are priced at $4.99. Go get ‘em!

[ Links: Filemaker Bento 4 ]

FileMaker just announced an update for their FileMaker Go app for the Apple iPhone and Apple iPad that just put pretty much the power of an office, an warehouse and a database into the something that fits into your hands. What’s that update? The ability to create PDFs, share databases via email and insert photos into your FileMaker Pro databases. Remotely.

FileMaker, Inc. today announced version 1.1 of FileMaker Go for iPhone and FileMaker Go for iPad, the popular new apps that let users work with FileMaker Pro databases on iPhone or iPad.

Users can now produce PDFs directly from FileMaker Go and either save them on their mobile devices or email them. This feature lets mobile users easily save and distribute reports, create invoices, and share project status directly from their iPad or iPhone.

Another enhancement is the ability to save a copy of a complete database and email it directly from FileMaker Go. With this feature, iPhone and iPad users can exchange databases from their devices without needing to dock with a desktop or laptop.

Best part? This update is totally free.

FileMaker Go is compatible with FileMaker Pro 7 databases and later versions. FileMaker Go 1.1 is available now as a free download for existing FileMaker Go users from the App Store. FileMaker Go for iPhone and iPod touch, running iOS 4 is $19.99 and FileMaker Go for iPad is $39.

[ Links: FileMaker, FileMaker Go ]

If you don’t recall, I’m a huge fan of Bento 3 for the Apple iPhone and Apple OS X platforms. It’s the one program that got my typical cluttered mess into an organized mess situation. Which… is pretty darn amazing to me. Filemaker has added a new option to make Bento 3 even more useful:

FileMaker, Inc. today announced the Bento 3 Project Manager, a brand new set of templates designed to make it easy for Mac users to track their personal projects and manage their time within one integrated, intuitive place. The Bento 3 Project Manager includes a free 30-day trial of the popular Bento 3 personal database for Mac, plus two professionally designed, ready-to-use templates.

Templates in the Bento 3 Project Manager include:

• Project Dashboard, with forms for project overview, milestones, tasks, communications, related files such as photos and presentations, and time sheets.
• Time Sheets, with pre-defined Smart Collections for hours billed, hours to be billed, and amounts due. All of this detailed information can be located quickly using iTunes-style searching.

The FIleMaker Bento 3 Project Manager also works with Bento for iPad and Bento for iPhone.

Bento 3 syncs up with your Apple iCal Calendar tasks and events, your Apple Address Book contacts and phone numbers and the Bento 3 Project Manager templates are a free download.

[ Links: FileMaker Bento 3, Bento 3 Project Manager Template Download ]

FileMaker has announced their release of FileMaker Go for the Apple iPad and Apple iPhone. With FileMaker Go, a person can remotely interface with their FileMaker Pro databases that support your business.

View, edit and search your FileMaker Pro records on your iPhone with FileMaker Go. Whether you’re checking inventory in the warehouse, managing event registration on-site, or updating project status while traveling, you can do it all while you’re on the go.

Ideal for mobile teams, FileMaker Go provides access to databases created with FileMaker Pro and hosted on FileMaker Server or FileMaker Pro. FileMaker Go can access databases residing on a Mac or PC using a local wireless network or over the Internet via Wi-Fi or 3G. All changes are instantly updated in the hosted file.

FileMaker Go users can also copy databases between their desktop or laptop computers and FileMaker Go via File Sharing in iTunes, perfect for single user databases. Databases may also be downloaded by email, popular file sharing sites, or the web.

Apart from making the excellent Bento for iPhone and iPad, this looks to be a killer way to allow folks to utilize FileMaker Pro while on the go. You’ll never be without accurate numbers that are within your databases whilst traveling again. FileMaker is making the Apple products into true productivity devices.

FileMaker Go for the Apple iPhone and iPod touch (running IOS 4) is $19.99 and FileMaker Go for iPad (running IOS 3.2) is $39.99.

[ Links: FileMaker, FileMaker Go ]

In what’s inevitably a rash of Apple iPad news ready for the release tomorrow, FileMaker has announced that they’re releasing Bento for the Apple iPad that will keep you as structured and organized as their Apple Mac OS X desktop and Apple iPhone application.

Bento for the Apple iPad is based on Bento for Apple iPhone with enhancements to make the most of the big, beautiful iPad screen. The new app enables users to manage contacts, track projects, plan events and more, and can be used by itself or synchronized with Bento 3 for Mac.

The new Bento for iPad provides gesture support navigation on iPad and takes full advantage of the innovative device’s big screen. The app works in both portrait and landscape views, automatically switching between views as the user rotates the iPad. Users can simply touch the screen to edit information in choice, date and rating fields and checkboxes. A new quick tap lets users watch videos, view photos and send e-mails. Customers can even browse web links in Bento without leaving the app.

The good news is that it’s now instantly available for $4.99 from the Apple iTunes Music Store. The semi-bad news though is that if you already have the iPhone app, you will still have to buy the app again since FileMaker made considerable improvements over the iPhone app interface. The bad news though… this makes me finally want an Apple iPad.

[ Links: Bento 3 Review, Bento 3 for Apple iPad ]

Ever since my review of Bento 3 for the Apple iPhone and Mac OS X platform, life has been that much more organized for me. And I’ll admit, I was one of those “structured yet unstructured” dudes. I knew where everything was at, lord forbid anybody that would try to follow my organized chaos.

Announced today, Filemaker has released a free Contact & Customer Manager template via the Bento Template Exchange – a free exchange of templates for Bento 3 that extends the living daylights out of Bento 3 from just an easy way to interface a deceptively simple yet powerful database that arranges notes, recipes, meetings, contacts, even contracts and invoices to an even more powerful application.

FileMaker, Inc. today announced the Bento 3 Contact and Customer Manager, a customized set of three new templates that make it easy for Mac users to organize all their contacts and customer details in one place – the perfect solution to a very popular New Year’s resolution. The Bento 3 Contact and Customer Manager includes a free 30-day trial of the popular Bento 3 personal database for Mac, plus three professionally designed, ready-to-use templates including customer and client contacts, sales receipts, and sales opportunities.

The Bento 3 Contact and Customer Manager also works with Bento for Apple iPhone and iPod Touch, so customers can organize their contacts and business activities on an Apple iPhone or iPod touch and then synchronize the information to their Mac.

“Customers and prospects can tell if you are organized – or not. By tracking notes from past meetings and conversations, upcoming to-do items, completed phone calls, and important e-mails you’ll be ready when your customers are.” said Ryan Rosenberg, vice president, marketing and services, FileMaker, Inc. “With the Bento 3 Contact and Customer Manager, we’re providing an easy and affordable way for customers to get instant access to complete contact and customer details—fully integrated with iCal Tasks and iCal Events—so they have a central hub of information that lets them stay more organized and productive.”

And yes… I’m that excited about a database program. Don’t have Bento for Apple OS X? Download a free trial here. And if you have Bento, the Contact & Customer Manager Template is free.

Thanks Beth and Carleen for the scoop and info!

[ Links: Bento 3 Contact & Customer Manager, Bento 3, RTL Bento 3 Review ]

I’m notorious for being late for meetings and events. It’s not on purpose or that I’m unorganized. I’m just apparently not organized enough. In fact, for meetings, I almost always tend to say “-ish” after the time we will be meeting. They know that I’ll be late. So reviewing something like Bento 3 for the Mac and Apple iPhone comes across as either a blessing or a stop being so gosh darn late hint.

Bento 3 is made by the same people that make FileMaker Pro and FileMaker Server. Heavy duty products that I’ve used in enterprise level deployments and projects in the past. Of course, that might mean this product for the average desktop user will be boring, staid and ultimately deemed too complex for daily usage. Wrong. The desktop application is a joy to use.

It’s quite refreshing that the desktop application isn’t impossibly hard to use at all. It really puts you in the mind of the other Apple provided apps like iCal, iTunes and iPhoto and just as easy to approach. Mentioning iPhoto and iCal, within moments Bento will synchronize with your iPhoto photos, Address Book contacts and iCal events.

Setting up a meeting in Bento is as easy as setting one up in iCal. For instance, I have a 5pm meeting with a company tomorrow… one I actually intend on being on time for as well.

Within moments, set up, synchronized with my iCal – which my Apple iPhone connects to as well, and I’m done. And Bento does support synchronization with an Apple iPhone via wifi as well as synchronization when connected to the computer via USB. And the Apple iPhone application is also as easy to use, I’ve created and added items to my existing libraries that quickly keep me organized in all details of my digital life.

And it’s not all about meetings either. You can set up: To-Do Items, Recipes, Projects (important for me), Inventory, Time Billing, Digital Media (for collections of CD’s, eBooks, et al), TV & Movie collections, among many other options. Seriously, you can set up and organize just about every aspect of your life.

Good part? You can also set up everything as it exists on the desktop also in the Apple iPhone application as well. Yes… you can organize yourself on the go if you have to or if you happen to be on a PC. But having both the Mac desktop and Apple iPhone applications – I sorta dislike typing on the iPhone for large amounts of text – it just works well.

And yes… in the last couple of weeks, I know what movies I have at home as well as my what projects I have going on, the level of completion for each project deliverable and even have set up a couple of meetings that I have been on time for.

Shocking… I know.

I can truly state that Bento by FileMaker is an application that you need to add to your must buy list. It retails for $4.99 for the Apple iPhone via the iTunes Music Store and $49.99 for the Apple Mac desktop.

The only con(s) I have for this application is that while it is deceptively simple, it can get very complex in the creation of a blank library to suit your needs that are not covered by the library templates is somewhat time consuming. There are downloadable, update-able templates that FileMaker and the users of Bento make available but it would almost be a patience killer to create a full functional template solely on the Apple iPhone. The desktop application makes somewhat short work of that.

It is Mac only, so there is a slight detractor for being limited to OS X. Buy it. If it can make a habitual late person as myself on-time and actually help organize the bits of my life that I sorely need to add more organization to and do that easily… you just need to buy this.

Rated: 4.5 out of 5 (Must Buy)

[ FileMaker ] [ Bento 3 ] [ Related: RTL Reviews ]