[digitalorthodoxy]

The only place Bento is going is straight into AppZapper...
I purchased Bento 1 in the first week of it being launched with promises of upgrades and new features and a whole new way to do my databases at home and, for my purposes work as well.
One very small upgrade later, Bento 2 is released with a lot of features I thought would be included in the next v1 upgrade. and with no consolation for people who have been waiting for an upgrade since purchasing Bento 1 (which as many people have said is still very much a Beta).
Bento 1 has never lived up to it's promises, making life more difficult than easy, and in most cases I could have done better with Numbers alone.
I'm aware of a lot of issues that still need to be resolved, including working with the old iPhone as well as many other possibly "updates." So, why would anyone buy v2 when they should be aware that v3 will cost them more, as will v4...
Apple's ilife and iwork are sold in this way, but the upgrades and packages are very much different than this little database package (that in most cases I still have to use Numbers for anyway). ilife and iwork are stellar packages of a number of programs and templates, Bento is one database program with fairly major flaws. Bento 2, and subsequent releases aren't worth paying the extra money.
In Australia we're talking $79, not $49.
By the time Bento 3 or v4 comes you might have well have purchased Filemaker for all the extra features.
FM have lost another customer, and I'm telling my friends to stay clear of it until I see a review for v4 (or beyond) that says it does everything people will want.
I'm not paying FM for the beta testing of another product again.

[greg14]

Still no Label ability.
having to run it through the address book does not make sense for my needs.
I have a 2500 data base file in appleworks that I cannot use in either pages, numbers or Bento because they have NO label ability.
Greg

[rkatx]

Good writing and logic Azurite. But man, I read Bento 2 review because I am looking for a lower level database than FMP. Appleworks sucks, so I'm reading a good review in Macworld just to consider it.

I started to read comments looking for a reasonable review but all I saw after two pages of rhetoric was the wining of owners of Bento 1. Maybe you are right. I know nothing about your financial investments and don't want to know. I just want a review of how a user feels the product works. Good and bad but I can't read anymore of this personal B S.

Thanks users for taking up 4 pages of wining and not one freakin' review.

Can anybody tell me how they like or don't like use of Bento 2?

Thanks.

[SSGoku]

rkatx said:

Can anybody tell me how they like or don't like use of Bento 2?

I don't have Bento 2, but I do have Bento 1. I use MS Access at work so I'm familiar with professional level database apps. Bento is no Access, but for personal use I like Bento. It meets my needs at home. It's easy to use and does what I want it to do.

My only complaint is that Bento is self contained. With Access, each database is a file onto itself (I assume this is true with FMP). I can share Access files with anyone that uses Access. I can store/back up files separately from the main application. When I open Bento, all my databases are there. If I want to share my database(s) then I have to export my info. There are no Bento files. If I want to backup my Bento databases, I have to back up the entire app. For personal use, I don't find this issue to be much of a problem, but I sure would like to have individual files for each of my databases.

[brians]

Bento 1.0 had one limitation that made it useless for me: it would display only one line of text in a field--no text wrapping (this made it useless for storing recipes, by the way--a use some have suggested for Bento).

Nothing I've seen yet of Bento 2.0 mentions whether a field can now contain longer strings of text which wrap within a field. And formatted text (italics) would be nice for bibliographies.

Paul Brians
Common Errors in English
http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/

[Chaac]

The no network sharing is one big CON for me. Won't buy until that is done.

[rkatx]

Thanks so much for taking you time (the last 3 that replied to my plea) to tell me you experiences and pros and cons of the BENTO EXPERIENCE>

It does sound a bit limiting for my use. I'll wait for a couple more versions to materialize before spending cash

Maybe Appleworks doesn't suck as bad as I believed.

[ibson]

I bought Bento version 1.0 sometime ago. Last week I got an email giving me a link to a free update.
The message was: 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! Then followed a link and a license key.
So what's the problem? I am living in Europe so maybe we are treated better ;-)

[holmesoliver]

Security, Security, Security, Security, Security, Security, Security,I really need it as it would be ideal for storing my client database on for my small company over here in the UK but without security whether its encryption or password I can't risk it. It's ashame though as it a cracking bit of kit and extremely versatile. Cheers Oli Holmes

[dfs]

I couldn't agree more, I've been shrieking for the ability to password-protect individual libraries ever since Bento 1 came out. What makes the problem worse is that Bento data has to be stored in User>Library>Application Support>Bento, so it can't be moved to a File Vault-protected folder.

[boardjohn]

WHY do I have to pay $51.45 again for the upgraded Bento?!?! The reason on the site, "... we considered it, but decided to have everyone pay the same price..." is really WEAK! I tried the trial version when it was released, and purchased it in April of 2008. I didn't get much use out of it due to its limited capabilities. Now six months later, that the features have been upgraded and it's now considered more user-friendly, I'm supposed to pay full price again! I don't consider this to be good business practice. Six months of potential use, and no consideration for those of us who've already paid full price.
Lessons learned: "Don't trust FileMaker" or "Don't buy now because you'll get more for the same money in a short period of time" or "You don't want this software THAT badly that you're willing to keep shelling out money to keep it up-to-date".

[mb280sl70]

I too am Po'd as I purchased Bento 1 on Aug 4th and 60 days later there is a new version which is little more than a bug fix which I am expected to pay another $49 for. They are nuts.
So as the old saying goes "fool me once.........".
I called tech support and complained and they acted like they couldn't give a sh*T. DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT. A former bento user.

[pawolverine]

I own Filemaker Pro and I looked at my purchase of Bento 1 as just a quick and dirty way of making a database. I felt Bento 1 was worth the $49 and only $49. To me, $49 was what I felt Bento 1 was worth for what it could do. If Bento would have been priced higher, I probably would not have bought it and just spent the time using Pro. By the way, if you have read my past post, I bought Bento 1 just two weeks outside of the free update period.

Since I already paid for the initial program and what it can do, FM is asking me to again pay full price for functionality I already paid for and any additions and/or bug fixes. Would I buy an update to CS4 and its additions and bug fixes at full price--No! Would I buy an update to even FileMaker Pro with additions and updates at full price--No. And, the same would be for most of my programs. I guess if you look at FM reasoning, they should not be offering any update price for FM Pro if they are selling it at the price point they feel is what is worth and not padding the price for reduced updates.

[andyotter]

As on who bought Bentohmyohmy on 7/9/08, this news fills me with joy!