[peterw]

Thanks for this very useful overview. One question, the answer to which must be interesting to many, is not answered: is it possible to import a Filemaker Pro database into Bento 2?
I have many extensive Filemaker databases. It would be unthinkable to recreate them manually in another program.
Peter Wesly

[leicaman]

Bento's cool, but since I have FIlemaker, it's kind of a waste to have both. Too bad Filemaker doesn't integrate with Mail, Address Book and iCal as well.

[gr8fultx]

STAY AWAY!
No upgrade price for 1.0 users is pretty poor. The 1.0 release was pretty limited and the early adopters really help drive the development of 2.0 which appears to be much more functional - in essence what the 1.0 should of been. Now it $100 for a dB application with a solid level of functionality. Like I said pretty poor support for your 1.0 adopters.

To be honest the 2.0 should be FREE to anyone that purchased the 1.0 product. They are the early adopters. They are the ones that helped improve the product. They are the ones that evangelized the product. You have screwed them. Now they will screw you. Yes new features have been added in 2.0 but if you believe that 1.0 was a mature product then your kidding yourself.

[ryanjo]

I am also a user of the 1.0 version of Bento since March 2008. The original was barely worth $49, and I only paid after the trial, thinking that some of the glaring deficiencies would surely be upgraded incrementally. I see no reason to buy this upgrade -- again, as the review notes, its still a very limited database program. And the buyers of version 2 can hardly expect further incremental improvements ... unless they pay again.

A lot of what is lacking in Bento 2 (security, cross-network/internet collaboration) is already available in the Google Docs spreadsheet, in just as usable a form. If Google creates a link between Google docs, Gmail, and desktop databases on the Mac, as they have enabled with iCal & Google calendar, then we'll never see Bento 3!

[bernardlanguillier]

Does Bento 2 have the capability to export to an XML file?

XML files drive a lot of the content of my website. They are currently generated from Excel but the Mac version of Excel doesn't have that capability... do that I now looking for a different way to handle this XML files generation.

Thanks.

Cheers,
Bernard

[Felix001]

I picked up version 1 when it was one of MacUpdate's half-price daily specials. Quite frankly, it didn't get much use since I already had customized FMP and Excel templates which accomplished the things version 1 was adept at doing effortlessly. Consequently, it was easier to just keep doing things the 'old' way.
Version 2 is much expanded and has better migration/importation capabilities (from existing products) so I may give it a whirl...if I can pick it up for half price again. But it's not worth $49 to me since I already have existing solutions which perform similar functions in a perfectly acceptable fashion.

[shawnuff]

Filemaker sent me an email with a link to a free upgrade from Bento 1. I guess because I bought it recently.
"FileMaker is pleased to announce the release of Bento 2. As a recent purchaser of Bento 1 personal database software, you are eligible to receive Bento 2 via download, for free!"

[Azurite]

This is more of a minor update than anything else-- some of the bigger issues that users have mentioned from the beginning of Bento 1 have yet to be resolved (like the formatting one mentioned earlier in this thread), and Filemaker expects us to pay full price? I purchased my copy of Bento 1 just over a month before their "free upgrade," which means if I want any of the issues I addressed in the forums or read about in the forums to be fixed, I'd have to pay $49. No thanks.
I don't care what OTHER companies do, for a product that, in its first version, was little more than a glorified Beta, it cost too much and didn't do enough. To force that same price on a product that just might pass for decent is ridiculous. I'd be willing to pay for an upgrade price, but the product hasn't even been out that long! And what about free updates for the interim, fixing outstanding issues? This is absolute BS, and they won't be getting any more of my money.

[ercross]

As an earlier adopter of Bento and owner of Filemaker Pro, I can tell you that if FM had been up front with their pricing scheme and told us that they felt "Bento v1 is worth $100, but we are going to charge you only $50 and $50 for each new edition," then many of us would not have purchased version 1. The truth is they couldn't have sold it for $100 and they knew it.

Where are the bug fixes for version 1? Oh, that's right there in version 2 which you must pay for. Certainly, if they'd of said, "oh, by the way, we aren't going to fix the bugs in the program except for ones that are catastrophic data bugs," a number of people would not have even tried the program.

This is a major customer service blunder on the part of FM.

[JMJJJJJJJJJJJJ]

Do not buy.
FileMaker will obsolete your version in less than 9 months. Then your data is trapped in abandonware and some day an OSX update will break it and there will be no patch. By by data.
If you have data in Bento1.0 or Bento2.0. Dump it to CSV as soon as possible and learn to use the free database product on OpenOffice3 (now a native Mac app).
At first I thought Bento was worth it (good UI and connivence is worth something). But FileMaker is so actively hostile to its customers you must defend yourself from them and get your data out while you can. You will waste far less time doing this now than it will cost to do it after you are a version behind, un-patched and un-runnable.

[elroth]

I think you all forgot to read the fine print - Bento actually costs $69, but you get a $20 discount if you own version 1. There's also a special promotional price for new users - $20 off while supplies last.
Ïeel better now?

[Azurite]

Bento has always been $49. That's what I paid for Bento v1 retail at the Apple Store, that's how much v2 is retailing for both online and at the Apple Store, and it's not a promotional price in any way. If the "fine print" says that anywhere, it's wrong. $49 is full price FOR EVERYONE. It's not fair even if your so-called fine print WERE right-- to pay the same amount v1 users paid for the whole software package as for an upgrade, but NEW users can get it for that much, too? That's not how it should work. New users pay full price, or a promotional price for a limited time (the promotional price being less than the $49 retail price, of course), and upgraders should pay LESS than the promotional OR full price, because they're the ones that helped Bento get as far as it had.

The whole point everyone's been making is that we shelled out $49 for something that was barely a beta, and the FileMaker people expect us to pay $49 for bug-fixes and minor patches-- not even a complete program overhaul or new features? It's simply not worth it. There should have been free bug-fixes and patches in the interim between v1 and v2, but we got NONE. And in v2, some of the more critical and highly-suggested features (no matter what FM's website touts) have yet to be added, still leaving the program crippled.

[stsk]

Good one elroth...

...but no, I don't really feel better

[jolipoli]

As I understand it, the developers of 1Password (agilewebsolutions.com/) have announced that it is possible use one database for multiple computers using Dropbox (getdropbox.com). It can be used by more than one computer at the same time as each save affects only individual sites/passwords (not the whole database) and therefore allows simultaneous changes without damaging the database. I'm curious if Bento 2 has this same ability to be safely in use by multiple computers. Anyone?

Thanks. Joel.