Bento for iPhone and iPod touch links users' contacts and keeps track of anything from business-related sales to recipes on personal databases. The $4.99 application allows users to organize recipes, to-do lists, projects and event planning, according to the company. For business users, it organizes expenses, inventories, time billing, and customer lists.

"Whether you are planning an alumni reunion, managing the membership list of a club, expense tracking, or logging exercise routines at the gym, Bento for iPhone and iPod touch can help you get it done while you are on the go quickly and easily," said Ryan Rosenberg, vice president of marketing at FileMaker. "With so many cool, ready-to-use templates, users are going to find Bento for iPhone and iPod touch irresistible,"

Organization on the Go

The application will provide real value for iPhone and iPod touch users, said Carl Howe, director of Yankee Group's consumer research group.

"I've got my list of maintenance receipts on my car and when is my next oil change, or a list of projects that I'm working on for the PTO," Howe said." Again, the whole argument is I can take those whole databases to go."

Information can be added into Bento's 25 templates, or users can create their own forms to organize any data on the iPhone or iPod touch, according to FileMaker.

"The way to think about it is it is a way to do more with contacts and mail on your phone and do them in ways you want to use them rather than ways others want you to use them," Howe said. "It's taking advantage of databases that we all have in our lives."

Bento also allows users to select from 15 data types, including text, numbers, address, phone numbers, and instant-messaging accounts, and works with existing iPhone apps, including Contacts, Google Maps, Mail and Safari.

Ready, Set, Sync

While Bento can be used as a standalone app, it can also synchronize wirelessly with Bento 2.0v4 for the Mac, a free update to desktop software that can be downloaded by Bento 2 for Mac users, according to the company.

The synchronization allows users to update information edited on the Mac or mobile device. "If there had not been synchronization, it would have been less valuable," Howe said.

Michael Gartenberg, vice president of strategy and analysis at Interpret, agrees.

"The ability for mobile applications to provide native synchronization to the desktop is a key differentiator in the market, and those apps will drive consumer adoption," he said.

Organizing in English

While Bento for the iPhone and iPod touch is only available in English and its templates are created in English, Bento for iPhone does support input in several languages and can be synchronized with Bento 2.0v4 for Mac in any language.

Templates in the localized versions of Bento 2.0v4 for Mac are available in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese and Dutch.