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Filemaker Releases Bento 3 Personal Database Software

Tuesday September 29, 2009 7:27 am PDT by Eric Slivka
Apple subsidiary FIlemaker today announced the release of Bento 3, a significant update to the company's personal database software. Priced at $49 for a single-user license or $99 for a five-user family pack, Bento 3 adds integration with iPhoto, sharing of libraries over local networks, and new options for viewing information.

"Think of Bento 3 as a powerful, easy way to bring together all of your key Mac information and photos," said Ryan Rosenberg, vice president, marketing and services, FileMaker, Inc. "With Bento 3, we're providing new ways for you to view and interact with your information so you can organize contacts, projects, events and even more details of your life."

Filemaker is offering a $20 instant rebate through January 28th, 2010 for users upgrading from Bento 1 or Bento 2, and is offering a free upgrade to any customers who purchased Bento 2 between August 30th, 2009 and October 14th, 2009.

Bento was introduced in November 2007, and a companion iPhone application was launched earlier this year. An update to the iPhone application is due to be released today, bringing compatibility with Bento 3.
[ 18 comments ]

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jrichard012
31 months ago
Can this program take an existing Excel spreadsheet and convert it to a data base management format?
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rdowns
31 months ago
I like this little app and think I'll upgrade.


Can this program take an existing Excel spreadsheet and convert it to a data base management format?



Seems so.
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CmdrLaForge
31 months ago

Can this program take an existing Excel spreadsheet and convert it to a data base management format?


Yes it does. Its a really nice app and I already upgraded.
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twoodcc
31 months ago
i've tried out bento and bento 2 before. though it does seem nice, i couldn't justify the $50 for it. i just didn't see myself using it every day. but i'll have a look at bento 3
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malachiman
31 months ago
Downloading the upgrade now, wasnt long ago I actually brought 2 but there are some new features that will be handy for me, I use it every day for work, and actually found it more useful that I thought. I originally brought the iPhone version and got the desktop version to support that. Slow download though 60kb/sec
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malachiman
31 months ago

Can this program take an existing Excel spreadsheet and convert it to a data base management format?


Sure can, you can just highlight your spreadsheet and past it into bento
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Docrjm
31 months ago
This is the missing database program from iWork.
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drmacnut
31 months ago

This is the missing database program from iWork.


Good point. Why on earth is it not included in iWork? The relationship between Filemaker and Apple is still a mystery to me.
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rdowns
31 months ago

Good point. Why on earth is it not included in iWork? The relationship between Filemaker and Apple is still a mystery to me.



Filemaker is a wholly owned subsidiary of Apple.
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jettredmont
31 months ago

Filemaker is a wholly owned subsidiary of Apple.


I think he meant eg "why doesn't FileMaker seem to not get the promotion / integration / fit-and-finish lavished on other Apple SW products".

The answer is, though, the same as above. Apple keeps its wholly-owned subsidiaries at arms'-length, and so until that changes I don't think you'll see FileMaker get the kind of attention the iTunes team gets.

(Speaking from past experience as an employee of an Apple Wholly-Owned Subsidiary)
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