Bento for iPad
System requirement: iPad running iOS 4.2 or later, 21MB available memory
Database program Bento has been a firm
favourite with Mac users for several years. It’s now available for iPhone and
iPod touch, as well as finding a more obvious home on the iPad. Bento presents
information in a visual form dispaying thumbnail images of your products rather
than just listing them. Using Bento to create digital recipe books is one
suggested use.
Dummy project pages pre-populate the Bento
app when you first use it, to give you a flavour of how it works and the sort
of items you can overwrite these or create new items. We decided to use Bento
to log details of craft projects.
Much of te appeal for Mac users is Bento’s
seamless synchronization with desktop version of the software. However, even
without this, we found plenty to admire. You don’t need more than iPad version
to use the note-taking, costing and reminder feature, or to create projects.
The fact that we could associate notes, pricing and prompts with our project
library meant we felt more in control of those projects and their status.
Bento for iPad automatically presented
costed items we entered in sterling, and offered links to resources such as
images and our own web store. Adding elements such as an inventory, expenses
list or address book involves no more than clicking on the drop down library
item list. As well as photos and notes, you can record memos and embed them in
your projects.
Bento doesn’t just allow you to file away
items and then quickly retrieve them along with a cache of associated
information; it can also be used as a real time cataloguing tool. Backup is
handled bu iCloud.
Verdict
For micro businesses that need to keep tabs
on stock, this simple database tool is worth the $5 investment.
Numbers 1.5 for iPad
System requirement: iPad running iOS 5.0 or later, 109MB available memory
Numbers for iPad is a good alterative to
Excel for Mac users not keen on Microsoft Officce. However, it’s a less
successful app for Windows users who routinely use Excel. Support for the more
advanced features of Microsoft’s spreadsheet tool is not fully realized.
An issue with previous versions of Numbers
was that it generated its own spreadsheet format, rather than being able to
export as .xls or .xlsx. version 1.5 fixes this, and adds iCloud
synchronization and the ability to create folders.
Numbers has some way to go before it can
replicate the full desktop spreadsheet charting and formulae crunching
experience, though. Hiding and un-hiding cells isn’t supported, for example;
neither is cell or row merge.
Taking these limitations into account, we
stuck to creating orginal spreadsheets on our iPad. On the tablet’s generous
9.7in screen, we were able to enjoy fullscreen documents and data set overviews,
and switch between landscape and portrait modes at will. These features don’t
work on the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4/4s versions of Numbers. You can see
everything, but as very small text, or only a handful of cells at once.
More importantly, editing and entering data
is frustrating using the iPad’s touchscreen; less of a problem if you’re using
a Bluetooth keyboard.
Another minor but potentially annoying
feature in Numbers on the iPhone and iPod touch is that you can only undo and
redo changes by shaking the device; the iPad app has a dedicated toolbar
button.
Verdict
Mac OS X users will get more from Numbers
than iPad-owning Windows users. For simple spreadsheet creation on the go, it’s
not a bad £6.99 app, but don’t expect to enjoy the full sophistication of
Microsoft’s Excel software.
