bento
Latest
USB powered lunch bag will keep your food hot while you "work"
Hungry for a hot lunch at your desk every Monday through Friday, but don't want to stand in line for the microwave? The USB-powered heated lunch bag is probably something you'll want to look into, then. It apparently keeps your food at a steamy 140 degrees Farenheit all day, though it gives us pause that we're warned to "make sure the plastic container that you store your food in is of a certain grade and quality" to ensure that there's not "an adverse chemical reaction," but we figure that's probably a minor concern. We don't know if the bag will ever be available in the US, but we have a feeling that if it is, it'll be at least double the size of the current iteration.[Via Everything USB]
Filemaker's Bento goes 2.0
When Filemaker introduced Bento, the 'relational database for the rest of us,' at Macworld Expo this year, the response from the marketplace was pretty solid; as of August, the $49 multipurpose data organizer had been downloaded over 400,000 times. Still, the product was a clear 1.0 with a lot of room for new features and improvements; that's what Filemaker is looking to deliver with Bento 2, announced today and on sale immediately.The big shift in B2 is the enhanced interaction with the data sources that contribute to your Bento collections. Need to include Mail.app messages in a layout along with contact info? Drag-and-drop them in, easy as can be. Want an RSS feed or your iCal data too? No problem. You can also sort and search your data in an iTunes-esque "Smart Collections" mode that should be familiar to novice users. One of the top requests from Bento 1 users was for better spreadsheet integration, and Filemaker has added copy/paste support and improved import/export for Excel and Numbers; spreadsheets can be sorted and tweaked with ease, especially in the new split table/layout view. Surprisingly (to me anyway), AppleWorks import capability was also near the top of the feature request list; it's been added as well.Bento's look has been revved up with 10 new themes; new in v2 is the ability to directly edit the layout of a database without switching into a layout-specific mode (just drag the field titles around). Address views now support AIM/iChat directly, and Google Maps integration is built-in. If you have rich media content that needs to travel with your database, you can embed it by option-dragging it onto the layout (a conventional drag creates a relative link to the media on your hard drive). Printing has been enhanced with new report modes, and the option to save a 'clone' template (no data records, just the schema and layouts) has been added.Filemaker's customer research has been demonstrating a wide and diverse audience for Bento, from pilots and fashion boutiques to eBay mavens and goat herders. It's a pretty good bet that if your needs include a light, single-user and simple database app, Bento will be a match for you.Bento 2 is $49 for one license and $99 for a family pack; through 10/27, it's available exclusively at the Apple Store or via store.filemaker.com. Bento 2 is a Universal Binary and requires Mac OS X 10.5.4 or higher.
Winners in the Back-to-School giveaways
If you entered one of our snazzy back-to-school giveaways in August you might want to check your email (and junk mail folders) today. We've sent confirmations to everyone who won. Congratulations to you, randomly-selected recipients!Here's a look at what we gave away: Ten licenses of Searchlight, the OS X and iPhone search tool Three copies of Bento, a personal database solution A big bag of goodies from Dr. Bott A Dymo DiscPainter 200 premium disc conversions from Ripstyles A bunch of games from Freeverse We'll update this post with the winners once everyone has responded.
Win a copy of Bento from FileMaker and TUAW
We've covered the personal database app, Bento, a few times in the past, and Brett mentions it in his "Collecting and Organizing Information" post, but our friends at venerable FileMaker want to give you a chance to try it yourself. So we're giving away three boxed copies of Bento today! Use it to store your school data, search and organize that data and link to documents elsewhere. It integrates with Address Book and iCal, for you savvy folks.To enter, just tell us what you'd pack in a real, physical bento (yes, food, but what kind of food?). Leave your comment and you're entered, with the usual restrictions applying (see below). Good luck! Open to legal residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 and older. To enter, leave a comment telling us what you would put in a bento. The comment must be left before August 20, 11:59PM Eastern Time. You may enter only once. Three (3) winners will be selected in a random drawing. Prize: One copy of Bento from FileMaker ($49) Click Here for complete Official Rules.
Super effective Pokemon bento
Some people are just gifted, like the Japanese mother who is responsible for these brilliant Pokémon-themed lunches. We've seen some neat Nintendo-themed bento before, but comparing those to today's specimens is a bit like holding up a Monet next to the scuffed chalk drawings on the sidewalk out front. They're just in different leagues.Hit the break to see the tastiest Pikachu ever. There's another of these, and tons that aren't made of Pokemans, at the source.
Filemaker releases Bento 1.0v2
Bento is the end user database software from Filemaker that was released as a beta a couple of months ago. We took a look at Bento in November. If you're coming from Filemaker Pro development, you'll find Bento a bit limiting, but the number of users who could potentially find it useful, like teachers, coaches and busy families, is large.Filemaker recently made version 1.0v2 available. Changes include Support for 5 additional languages Stability fixes Bento requires Mac OS X v10.5. A single license can be purchased for $49US (this update is free for those who own Bento 1.0).
FileMaker Bento is shipping
Having run through a couple of beta releases, it's now prime time for FileMaker's consumer-level organizer DB: Bento is shipping today in advance of Macworld Expo. The "database for soccer moms" product is $49 for a single user license, $99 for a family pack. We've got screen shots from Bento in our gallery for your perusal.Note that Bento requires Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, so if you were planning to deploy it to your uncle's aging eMac, you might want to reconsider.
DS makes for a Lite lunch
As part of a bento challenge, Livejournal, uh, "bentochallenge" community member mushmo made this awesome rice representation of a pink DS. Technically, it's a Phat, but we couldn't resist the pun in the title.The DS onigiri folds up to fit in its bento box, and is joined by shrimp, broccoli, carrots, and a hard-boiled egg to make a delicious meal for mushmo's lucky son. Honestly, we don't know if we'd be able to eat such a meticulously crafted food item. We'd feel guilty for ruining all that work, and we'd just go raid the fridge for some food that isn't shaped like stuff.
Filemaker releases Bento preview update
Filemaker have released a new beta version of Bento, their easy to use database application (we took an early look at Bento last month). I've been playing with it for a while, and I'm enjoying it. I use Filemaker Pro at work, so I miss some things like defining my own relationships, scripting, etc., but Bento is quite useful for the project that doesn't need all the power of Filemaker Pro. You truly can get a database up in minutes for your soccer team, organization, or inventory.This current beta will expire on February 14, 2007 (It's always a shame to break up on Valentine's Day). Filemaker notes that you should not manually delete any of your current Bento files before applying this update; The new version will update everything automatically.
TUAW first look: FileMaker announces Bento organizer app
When you've been creating and selling the same application for 20 years -- the most successful database on the Mac platform, and a contender on Windows -- and you're a wholly owned subsidiary of Apple, Inc. with plenty of customers in business, education and SOHO markets... well, what do you do for an encore? FileMaker Inc. has a pretty good market with the namesake app, but as the Mac universe grows to include more families, independent professionals and first-time switchers, the full power and cost of a relational database may be more than these new Mac users need (and might actually be more scary than appealing, despite FM's legendary ease of use). Time for a light, personal-organizer version of that FileMaker power -- an iData, if you will. It's coming in January, for Leopard users only, and it's called Bento. (That's Backup.app on the left and Butler on the right. Hi, I'm Mike, and I'm a Cover Flowaholic.) Bento will cost $49 for a single-user license, with a $99 family 5-pack option.The idea of the bento box -- one-stop lunching, with compartments for the individual bits of yummy -- gives you a basic sense of the product. With contact, calendar, tabular/relational data and media file embedding, Bento can serve as a basic organizer or a reasonably savvy database, with a lot of room in the middle. For those with long memories who are saying "Hey, wasn't there already some Mac databasey-thing called Bento?" -- yep, that was the name of OpenDoc's native file format (thanks Christina for the tip).%Gallery-10201%Bento's time-limited preview version is available now for download; it expires in February after the on-sale date. We got a brief advance look (more details below) and there's a screenshot gallery for you to enjoy, but you'll best grok Bento by getting a copy and playing with it.
Nin-bento makes us happy we have to eat food to live
A Livejournal group called "Bento Challenge," which is devoted to making festive Japanese-style lunches in recognizable shapes, is doing a "game characters" theme this week. And, as you may expect, that means a lot of Nintendo. In Soviet Russia Japan, you eat Kirby!We posted the Kirby because it's so adorable-- he's just SO HAPPY about being your lunch! But there is other stuff in the competition that must be seen to be believed, like a Paper Mario-style Bowser that is basically perfect. Forget waggling, devouring is the real Revolution.We spend too much time on unimportant aspects of our food, like flavor. We should really be paying more attention to how much like a Nintendo character our meals look.
Ms. Pac-Man has invited you to lunch
As often happens during lunchtime jaunts through Flickr, our stomach led us to pictures of food, where we happened upon Mr. Bento sets, which subsequently led to this delectable Ms. Pac-Man bento box. It may look like Ms. Pac-Man's about to gobble the ghost, but truth is both were munched by one "nadja.robot," the creator and the destroyer of this gastronomical artwork. Adorable and nutritious? See, games are good for you.
