Appiphilia: FileMaker serves up Bento for iPhone
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For Cinco de Mayo, FileMakerserved up its personal database software on an iPhone and iPod Touch platter. The company makes the desktop version, Bento 2, for Macs and the FileMaker series for PCs.
We gave Bento a taste test today.
What it is: A multitasking database, a portable version of its Mac-based software.
What sizzles: First off, the interface is very familiar -- it feels very much like iTunes. Bento offers you ready-to-use tools at your fingertips. The templates include options for business owners and casual users. So you can tap out invoices or keep track of vehicle maintenance.
I liked the idea of starting with a clean slate. So with a series of taps and using a ‘blank’ template, I set up a database for my ‘day job’ -- managing editorial broadcast relationships for this news outlet. Using a blank template, I created fields for names, news stations, dates and times as well as a rating system for the appearance. This will help me keep track of who’s been where -- and maybe to prove to the bosses that I actually do more than just play with iPhone apps all day.
Because I’m all about customizing, I also was able to tweak one of the app’s existing 25 templates -- Diet Log. Following the idea that you are what you eat, I decided to add the ability to add photos of my meals. I can now take a picture while in the app and add it to the list of meals consumed.
And, for those of us with the Bento software on our Macs, it can sync with minimal initial setup via Wi-Fi. So at home, riding on the same network as my laptop, I synced the Bento applications on both devices. And voila! The pics of my meals were there in the diet log on my laptop in living color to taunt me later. (I did have some trouble at work with setting up a network to sync between laptop and device, but that’s probably a workplace issue.)
One nice thing is that the app can, indeed, happily exist on its own without ever syncing to a desktop version.
What fizzles: I’m a Mac user in my personal life, so for me this one is more of a mini-fizzle, in spirit: For PC users, there is no desktop counterpart with which to sync. PC users who use Bento on their iPods and iPhones may feel a bit left out; of course, FileMaker now offers an iPhone template that lets you publish its databases to the Web in the iPhone format.
At some point, maybe it will integrate the ability to record audio and attach it to relevant databases.
Bottom line: This app appears to be a robust portable version of its Mac software, with a lot of variety for the ultra-organized or for those of us just struggling to get it together.
-- Michelle Maltais
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