FileMaker News: Bento Template Exchange Surpasses Half-Million Downloads
More than 700 real-world templates show wide range of uses For Bento on Mac, iPhone and iPad
FileMaker, Inc. announced that over 500,000 free templates have been downloaded from the Bento Template Exchange since its launch in June 2009.
Bento by FileMaker is the popular personal database software for Mac, iPhone and iPad. The Exchange makes it easy for visitors to try Bento for free, and to browse, install and use a huge variety of real-world templates contributed by Bento users.
The Bento templates show how Bento can organize virtually any information in business, education and home settings. The more than 700 templates illustrate the virtually unlimited uses for Bento, ranging from Sales Funnel Management and Simple Home Inventory to Teacher Lesson Plans and Psychotherapy Session Notes. Among the most popular templates are Contact & Customer Manager and Project Manager.
“People get a database because they have a job to do. The template exchange provides 700 ways to accomplish whatever task you have in mind.” said Ryan Rosenberg, vice president of marketing and services, FileMaker, Inc. “A half-million downloads from the Bento Template Exchange shows that lots of people are finding this true.”
Downloading and using templates is simple and rewarding. The Exchange provides easy instructions on how to download and import templates along with easy steps for sharing your Bento templates. Bento templates may also be used with Bento for iPhone and Bento for iPad (sold separately on the iTunes App store), if they are synched with Bento 3 on the Mac.
Open-E announces general availability of Open-E Data Storage Software V6
World recognized storage management software developer offers its latest storage management OS at a fraction of the cost of alternative storage offerings
Open-E, Inc. announced the general availability of its sixth generation Data Storage Software (DSS) V6 IP-Storage operating system. The new DSS V6 storage management software, with a new architecture, user interface and with more advanced functionality than previous versions, can be easily downloaded from Open-E’s website and installed to any media including internal HDD, RAID Array, USB, SATA and IDE DOM (Disk-On-Module), or any other bootable media.
The Open-E Data Storage Software V6 (DSS V6) is a unified file and block storage management operating system (OS) that offers Network Attached Storage (NAS), iSCSI, InfiniBand and Fibre Channel Storage Area Network (SAN) functionality, while providing superior performance, security, and scalability at a fraction of the cost of alternative storage offerings. Advanced features of Open-E DSS V6 include Data and Volume Replication, Volume Snapshot, Automatic Failover for iSCSI Volumes, WORM and NDMP and built-in virus protection. Designed to be versatile and flexible to support a wide variety of hardware RAID platforms from the industry’s leading vendors, Open-E DSS V6 allow users to combine NAS systems with iSCSI SAN systems, while enabling the connection of multiple Network Interface Controllers, including Gigabit Ethernet, 10 Gigabit Ethernet, Fibre Channel and InfiniBand. The Open-E DSS V6 supports logical volumes greater than 16TB. The software is available with standard license capacity of 4, 8, and 16TB. Extension keys can be purchased to add additional storage capacities from 2TB to 64TB.
In comparison to its legacy versions which already provides a rich feature set, Open-E DSS V6 adds advanced functionality including:
Powerful and Intuitive, new Web-based User Interface: The high performance web-based Graphical User Interface (GUI) of the Open-E DSS V6 software makes remote management of the storage device a simple task. By using a web-browser, the DSS V6 can be easily managed from anywhere within the network.
Automatic Failover for iSCSI Volumes: Open-E DSS V6 provides fault tolerance via iSCSI Volume Replication. The real time data of the primary server is immediately mirrored to a secondary server. In the event of a failure of the primary server, Open-E DSS V6 automatically and transparently for user switches operations to the secondary server.
Volume Replication: Open-E DSS V6 provides both Synchronous and Asynchronous Volume Replication. Asynchronous Volume Replication is also supported over a WAN.
SCSI-3 Persistent Reservation: Open-E DSS V6 now supports persistent reservation commands. This enables support for Windows Server 2008 Cluster.
New SNMP based system monitoring: Open-E DSS V6 enables the user to check the performance of their system quickly and easily.
NDMP 4.0: Open-E DSS V6 integrates the latest Network Data Management Protocol 4.0, which defines a network-based mechanism and protocol for controlling backup, recovery, and other data transfers between primary and secondary storage devices.
“We’re very pleased to offer our new Open-E DSS V6, which is the culmination of eight years of development and feedback from thousands of our worldwide customers ranging from micro businesses to the SMB and SME markets,” said Krzysztof Franek, president and CEO of Open-E. “In keeping with our customer centric focus on providing a complete storage management application range that can easily install to solve their simplest to the most complex storage needs, all previous versions of our software can be easily upgraded to the full version of Open-E DSS V6 for a nominal charge. Further, to introduce the power of our software to a wider audience base, we’re also offering a fully functional Open-E Data Storage Software V6 Lite (DSS V6 Lite) trial version for free that integrates a unified file and block storage management operating system with NAS and SAN functionality.”
The free version Open-E DSS V6 Lite, licensed for 2TB of storage and up to 10 downloads per user, can be easily downloaded by simply registering and downloaded at Open-E’s portal. To accommodate growth, Open-E DSS V6 Lite is extendable with Capacity License and Support Keys and can be upgraded to the full working version of Open-E DSS V6.
Older Open-E DSS versions can be upgraded to Open-E DSS V6 for $420 USD end user price.
Bento Template Exchange showcases real-world uses and downloadable templates
Templates demonstrate the versatility of popular personal database for Mac
FileMaker, Inc. unveiled the Bento Template Exchange where Mac users can post and browse many real-world uses of Bento, the personal database from FileMaker that’s as easy to use as a Mac. People interested in Bento can even download templates and use them with a trial or full version of Bento 2 .
A Bento template is a pre-designed database form, but without any data. A visitor who downloads, for example, the “My Wine Cellar” template, has a beautiful ready-to-use wine tracking form — complete with fields for winery, vintage, price and more — and can enter data for their own wine collection – or copy and paste existing information from spreadsheets such as Excel or Numbers. Plus, templates can be customized to meet each individual’s unique needs.
“Bento excels at helping you organize virtually anything. And thanks to Bento’s capability to export and share templates, the template exchange showcases a wide range of creative and productive real-world uses,” said Ryan Rosenberg, vice president, marketing and services, FileMaker, Inc. “Whether your passion is collecting coins, selling products, organizing volunteers or planning events, these sharable templates show how you can do it better with Bento.”
Visitors to the Bento Template Exchange can browse through the most popular templates, the newest templates, or look through 15 categories including Business, Music and Movies, Finance, and Cooking, Food and Wine. Templates are also searchable by typing a phrase like “soccer team roster.”
The Bento Template Exchange includes clear instructions on how to download and import templates, and how to submit Bento templates for sharing. Bento customers are encouraged to share their templates on the Bento Template Exchange to help potential customers imagine their own uses for Bento.
Importing and exporting Bento templates requires Bento 2.
Visitors will find that downloaded templates are usable with the new Bento for iPhone and iPod touch, if they synch with Bento on the Mac.
Vizual Gives Free HR Software to Small Businesses
UK HR Software company Vizual is taking the unprecedented step of giving away its HR.net Lite Human Resources software free of charge.
This is the first time that fully functioning HR software has been available as free software – and it’s not time limited either. UK businesses typically pay from GBP300 to GBP1,000+ for this level of Human Resources software.
“Vizual can do this, because we are a well-established company, with steady revenues from selling our HR software since 1996,” says Vizual’s Marketing Manager, Eamon Carney-Holland. “In the current economic climate, many businesses are under pressure so we want to assist if we can. HR.net Lite will help them to reduce their HR workload, and in the longer term, we expect that some of the small companies who use our free software will expand and upgrade to one of our HR.net packages for larger businesses.”
Vizual offers four versions of HR.net for companies of different sizes. HR.net Express is for companies with up to 250 people, HR.net Professional for those with 400 employees and HR.net Enterprise for the largest blue chip companies.
HR.net Lite helps to manage the Human Resources workload by automating many of the routine HR tasks. It has functions to organise employee data, track important dates and keep workforce paperwork up to date. It is easy to install on a PC or server and automates most HR tasks – employment, holiday and absence, training, talent, health and safety and company documents. It also provides event triggers and a selection of reports and charts.
HR.net Lite is perfect for businesses with up to 15 members of staff and is web-based – a first for this level of HR software.
To request your FREE copy of HR.net Lite go to http://www.vizual.co.uk email FREE@vizual.co.uk or call 0844-770-0250.

