Aside from the pre-built themes and overall ease of use it’s known for, Bento 4 now also features the following new tools:

• Label Printing — customize the label function to your heart’s delight.
• Form Printing Options — ditto. Improve all those invoices.
• Export Templates with Data — this looks like a roundabout way of copying the file.
• Grab & Store Location Data — this one’s actually very cool. You can setup Bento to automatically enter your location when you create or modify a record. Literally. It will enter your longitude and latitude. That could be very useful indeed. You’ll need a Mac with OS X 10.6 or later, or of course, an iPhone or iPad.
• Easy Date Searches — instead of typing in date ranges, simply pick words, like Today, Tomorrow, etc.
• Spreadsheet Like Simple Lists — no idea what this is for, but I’m sure it’s handy to someone. I think in the old world, these would be called repeating fields.
• Bento Template Exchange — You can post your fancy new layout template to the Bento Template Exchange more easily, allowing everyone to benefit from everyone else’s hard work.
• Locking Forms — Stop those pesky colleagues from editing your layouts (forms). Lock them.
• Faster & Easier — A small array of minor improvements.
• iPad/iPhone Upgrade — The Bento apps for these mobile devices have been upgraded too (to 1.1) to work with the new Bento 4 features.

Very nice — if you need a database, on a Mac, that is easy to set up, works seamlessly with iCal and AddressBook,  integrates with your iPhone or iPad, and looks pretty. Perhaps not everyone, but, still, a fairly large group of people could be very happy with Bento. Certainly worth checking out. Bento 4 is $49 for a full license, $29 for the upgrade, and there’s a 30-day free trial too for those on the fence. Follow this link to the Bento site to find out more.

Although in FM10 and higher, you can assign a script to the phone number field, which when triggered (usually when exiting the field) could take a look at the entered value for the phone number, and clean it up — I personally like to opt to a clever but simple calculated field validation, using a combination of the Let and Case functions. The goal being (for this example) to find any entry that consists of seven or  ten numbers, and reformat it in a consistent fashion (“xxx-xxxx” or “(xxx) xxx-xxxx”). The idea is to do this even if the original phone number has multiple spaces, or non-numeric characters in it, such as brackets, dashes, letters, or periods.

Here’s how it works.

For this example, we’ll be reformatting a field called TelCell. The first step is to identify which characters in the field are numbers, and not text. We will call these characters “Numbers”, and will use a Let function in the beginning of our calc to identify them. This allows us to more easily apply conditional logic on that dataset (Numbers) later in the function. In the example here, we do this by saying, for this function, to let all the characters in this field that are numbers be called Numbers. Or, in Filemaker’s geek speak:

Let ([Numbers=Filter(TelCell; "0123456789"]; the rest of the function)

Now that it knows we just want to base our remaining the part of the function on just the Numbers in the field, we can continue on with that part.

For this bit, we’ll use the Case function. Much like an IF statement, but without the pitfalls of nested scenarios. Basically with a Case statement you can say “IF this, THEN that” time after time after time, until you’ve run out of scenarios you deem important, and close it out with a final ‘THEN that’ at the very end, in case none of the earlier IF scenarios were met. In this example, we have four scenarios we’re looking for — and if we don’t find any of them, we leave the TelCell field contents alone. Here they are, in order:

Case(
PatternCount(TelCell; “@”) = 1; TelCell;
Length ( Numbers )=11 and Left(Numbers; 1) = 1 ; “(” & Left(Right(Numbers; 10); 3) & “) ” & Middle(Numbers; 5; 3) & “-” & Right(Numbers; 4);
Length ( Numbers )=10 ; “(” & Left(Numbers; 3) & “) ” & Middle(Numbers; 4; 3) & “-” & Right(Numbers; 4);
Length ( Numbers )=7 ; Left(Numbers; 3) & “-” & Right(Numbers; 4);
TelCell)

And now, in English:

1. Case Step 1: If the field TelCell has an ‘@’, set the field to its current content (ie, leave it alone)
2. Case Step 2: If the amount of numeric characters in TelCell equals 11 and starts with the number 1; strip the starting 1, wrap parentheses around the next three digits, and add a dash just before the final four digits.
3. Case Step 3: If the amount of numeric characters in TelCell equals 10, then do the same as above, but without getting rid of the starting digit.
4. Case Step 4: If the amount of numeric characters in TelCell equals 7, then just put a dash between the third and fourth digit.
5. Case Step Final: If none of the above criteria are met, set TelCell to… TelCell — in effect, leave it as it was to start with.

So, perhaps not a starter script, but still, a simple one. And useful. By placing it in a Case statement, you can add even more rules to it fairly easily. Just keep in mind that the Case statement works its way from start to finish, one step at a time, and once it meets a step it likes (ie, is true), then it skips the rest.

Also, by putting this small calc in the field’s auto-enter validation settings, you don’t need to run any scripts. Filemaker will run this logic on the TelCell’s contents each time anybody makes a change to the field, automatically. Just remember to uncheck the box outlined in the screenshot above. Otherwise it will only work the first time you enter a value into the field.

Anyhoo, it looks pretty useful. Packed with demos of how developers are creating Filemaker solutions for the iPhone/iPad combo, tips, videos, links, and of course, updates.

Go check it out by following this link, and if you’re so inclined, you too can be a Filemaker Facebook Friend.

The purpose of these eye strain exercises is to ascertain that you are indeed a human, and not a spambot. That way web developers can assure that their web forms aren’t hijacked by nefarious spambots, which will attempt press their webforms into the service of evil.

And, in case you were wondering, the term CAPTCHA stands for Completely Automated Public Turing Test To Tell Computers and Humans Apart, and was coined in 2000 by Luis von Ahn, Manuel Blum, Nicholas Hopper and John Langford of Carnegie Mellon University. See, this blog is both fun, and educational. For those of you however who don’t know who Turing was, or what a Turing Test is, follow the aforetagged links.

Standard CAPTCHA -- just an image, not real.

For now though, back to the captcha’s. Although ostensibly agents of Good, they are supremely annoying. Some more so than others. The amount of captchas out there are endless. Most are the squiggly letter variant, but pretty much anything that is hard for a computer, but easy for a human will do. I figure, anything aside from the squiggly letter variant is a good thing.

For example, there are captchas out there that make you simply recognize an object, or answer a simple question. Very clever. Like this one.

Sadly though, recently we came across a new hybrid captcha that wins the prize for evil evolution. At first we didn’t quite understand what was expected of us. It just looked like a regular captcha, but oddly, with an ad attached to it. It wasn’t until after a few failed form submits, that we finally realized that the advertising captcha didn’t just want us to view their ad, but they also wanted us enter that ad’s tagline into the captcha itself — as proof that were a) human, and b) had paid sufficient attention to their banner ad. Great. Like the web isn’t inundated enough with ads already.

I’m all for keeping spambots out of our life, and therefore gladly suffer through all types of captchas, good or bad. But when the ad banner demons start to get involved and decide to add an extra dollop of user pain in the process, well that’s when things get ugly.

Establishing a ‘presence’ in the real world’s pretty straight forward. You literally set up shop. Find a place, sign a lease, and move into your new location. No matter what you do, if you paid to open your store in a nice shopping district, it will still be there the next day.

However, in the virtual world, where your store is your website, the rules are different. Your site’s web address may forever and always be the same, but the way people find it in the first place (search engines like Google) can change overnight. This is because Google has a secret set of rules to determine which sites show up where on their search results. These rules, the algorithms, aka PageRank, typically don’t change too often, allowing SEO specialists to optimize websites to perform well under the current algorithms.

Once in a while though, Google will update their master algorithms somewhat drastically. Usually in response to the endless amount of sites trying to take advantage of current algorithm loopholes. These sites, known as content or link farms, serve no real purpose other than to rank high, and generate traffic for ad-clogged pages. Here’s a good article in the LA Times about all that. Interesting stuff.

Google will tweak its algorithms to weed out these cheater sites, but of course in the process (because nothing’s perfect) some legit businesses are affected too. One day business is humming along online, with plenty of solid traffic to your online store — and the next, you have no customers at all. Nada. Zip.

It’s probably a good idea to keep in mind that although good Google rankings can be a serious boon to your business, it is not something you truly control. Even if you’ve got it all figured out, Google can (and will) change up their algorithms sooner or later.

Speaking of which, they did so recently. Here’s another article in the LA Times about a recent algorithm update, and how it has affected several web businesses.

As we all know, data does not equal knowledge. Having access to trillions of factoids is harmful, not useful. With so much data out there, it’s all too easy to drown in data overload. In order to put the data to work you need a method of organizing it all. Find it, link it, tag it, share it — and if you’re creative, add to it.

Database and internet engineers are constantly working on organizing data and search algorithms. No matter what the economy is doing, everybody needs help with their data. Our craving for data is incessant. Any game-changing development results in big leaps forward, and often, gazillion dollar businesses (Google ring a bell?).

So, I’m always looking for database tools that not only slap a new look on existing architectures, but especially new solutions that break conventions, opening up new ways of working and thinking.

The latest entrants we’ve run into recently are offered by an outfit called by TheBrain. They offer PersonalBrain for all your own thoughts and computer files. Essentially a file management system where the items are linked to each other, allowing you to jump around without having to remember where you put anything. Not necessarily a new idea, but their execution is very smooth. The way they bridge the gap between digital files and your own ideas is clever, and an interesting step towards the inevitable convergence of your brain and your digital files.

Pushing further, TheBrain also offers tools for linking groups of PersonalBrains into loose affiliations (WebBrain) or structured groups (BrainEKP). Organizing all your own data is one thing, but finding ways to creatively link multiple PersonalBrains via the interweb is where the real fun starts. Could be very interesting indeed.

Hop on over to TheBrain’s website and check it out. They have a short vid on the home page, plus free downloads for Windows, Linux, and Mac.

Most companies, Apple definitely included, do not announce what’s coming down the pike.  You’re pretty much left to your own devices to figure out whether or not this is a good time to upgrade your laptop, phone, or music player.

You are however, not alone. Once again the mighty interweb comes to the rescue. Over at MacRumors they’ve been tracking Apple’s various product cycles closely for years. They gotten it down to an art form. No matter which product is currently on your wishlist, they’ve got Buy/No Buy recommendations, and a few handy data points to back up their recs.

So if you’re a Machead, head on over to this very useful site, and bookmark it, so that the next time you’re looking to upgrade your computer, iPad, iPhone or iPod — you’ll know exactly when to wait, and when to buy.

When it comes to coders, there are the amateur dabblers, the designated in-house gurus,  the local professional developer, and in a few cases, the industry recognized masters — or more accurately, the best Filemaker developer firms. Teams of very smart and dedicated coders, who happen to ply their craft with Filemaker instead of say Java, PHP, Ruby, mySQL, Flash, etc. etc. etc..

Most of these firms offer a variety of services. Anything from some general consulting, to full-on massive database systems to run your entire business, across the world. Coding, hosting, sites, pre-built solutions, system integration, and more. The list is too long, and the skill levels of these high-end developers is off the chart. Basically, if any of your coder friends have ever scoffed at Filemaker as ‘just a toy’, then all of these developers listed below quite emphatically say otherwise.

• 360 Works
• Beezwax
• Excelisys
• Foxtail
• MagicMakerPro
• SeedCode
• Skeleton Key
• The Support Group
• Troi Automatisering

This is not even a complete list. There are scores of very high end Filemaker developer teams out there, all across the world. But, we can’t list them all, so this group will give you a taste of the talent out there. Bookmark all these developers, and check them out. And if you ever find a database management problem that these whip smart people cannot solve, and solve well, let us know — cause we think they can pretty much tackle anything thrown at them.

This is more and more obvious every day. Every single Filemaker user we know is moving their solutions over to their iPads, or at least thinking about it seriously.

Filemaker Go works anywhere, even Down Under

Here’s a good case in point, Acorn Car Rentals. An Australian firm that arranges for rental cars after an auto accident. As soon as Filemaker Go came out, they dropped their costly bug-ridden mobile system, and replaced it with their already proven Filemaker ERP, but now accessing it anywhere in the field via Filemaker Go and their iPads. Click here to find out more.

There are too many new or improved features to cover here, and besides, Apple explains it all better, complete with photos and videos. Go check it all out here.

The new iPad2 also sports a colorful array of Apple-designed iPad covers, custom built to work in tandem with the new iPad2 design. Simple, clever, and a good idea for anyone who detests smudges or scratches.

The new iPad2 is available in its original black and silver (go Raiders!), or entirely clad in white. US buyers can get their early adopter fix for as little as $499 starting March 11th. The rest of the globe can partake towards the end of March.

Although the iPad2 got all the coverage, of perhaps more import to the millions of existing iPad and iPhone users is the pending iOS 4.3 software update. The nice thing about the iOS updates, is that they’re free, but you still feel like you’ve got a new toy.