May 5 - 9:00am EDT   Apple's FileMaker subsidiary on Tuesday made a trio of announcements related to the iPhone, including a mobile version of its Bento personal database software, a free update to its Bento 2.0v4 desktop application for wirelessly syncing to the iPhone app, and a new tool for FileMaker Server 10 to create iPhone-friendly websites for FileMaker data. Bento for iPhone and iPod touch enables users to view, organize, create, and search for data easily on their mobile device as well sync that information to their Mac using Bento 2.0v4 (available separately). The portable version of the application, is now available for download for US$4.99 from Apple's App Store, while Bento ... [full story]

December 1 - 7:55pm EST   FileMaker has released Bento 2.0v3, the latest version of its database software. The update addresses a number of user-reported bugs, including issues related to the vertical spacing between checkbox fields, text-box editing on imported templates, and exporting of non-ISO date formats. Problems with deleting static labels and XML references, upgrading large databases, and partially downloaded e-mail messages have also been corrected. [full story]

October 27 - 12:25pm EDT   For years, the most popular Mac database has been FileMaker. While FileMaker has a reputation for being powerful and easy to use, it’s also geared more towards commercial developers, cross-platform development, or people who need heavy-duty data processing. If your database needs are much simpler, you could still use FileMaker, but you might find the program a bit more complicated than necessary. You could also use the Address Book, which comes with every Mac, but you might find that too limiting. For an easy database that’s also powerful enough for more than trivial tasks, consider FileMaker’s Bento 2. [full story]

October 14 - 9:05am EDT   Approximately 10 months after its introduction, FileMaker has released v2.0 of its personally-oriented database software, Bento, focusing on user-suggested improvements. Rather than a complete revamp, this version is said to represent fine tuning. FileMaker has added 10 new themes, direct links to Apple Mail, easier import/export from Numbers and Excel, and a more "Mac-like" interface. [full story]

August 26 - 2:35pm EDT   .com Solutions has upgraded FmPro Migrator to version 4.38, and describes the patch primarily as a "maintenance update" which includes Bento-to-FileMaker Pro enhancements. FmPro Migrator converts FileMaker Pro databases to MySQL, Oracle, Access, SQL Server, Sybase, DB2, OpenBase, PostgreSQL and FrontBase formats. Some changes include new Check for Updates and Online Web Help menus, the latter of which point to "How To..." documents on the FmPro website, said to be more frequently updated; the maintenance otherwise consists mostly of performance and functional improvements to gathering tables and relationships, as well as creating FileMaker Layouts based on Bento forms. [full story]

April 25 - 5:10pm EDT   In brief: We have a review of FileMaker's Bento, dates for the KORE 2 workshop tour have been announced, Zerofractal Studios has debuted Tree3D, European Country Keynote themes are available, and 1 million copies of Parallels have been sold ... We have posted a review of FileMaker's Bento. In Bento, you choose customizable forms and a number of containers, each with a specific use. Bento veers away from the more technical database jargon and refers to its databases as Collections in a library and compares them with iTunes playlists. Text entry boxes still use the term fields, like its big brother FileMaker, but Bento includes templates so that you can skip the frustrating ... [full story]

February 13 - 11:55pm EST   FileMaker's newly released Bento personal database has reached version 1.0v2, adding a number of features and stability implementations, as well as compatibility with Mac OS X 10.5.2. Bento now supports several language formats, such as International English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish. Several import and export functions have been refined, related to Smart Collections in the iCal Events library, records, calculations, and address formats. The update is free to existing users, and is available for new users for $50. [full story]