Like many small business owners, RealSimple’s Erin knew that “databases can simplify life and work, but until now, I’ve never been able to design them myself.” Until she began using Bento, that is. “Bento looks, feels and works like other Mac applications. Organizing your information into collections in Bento is much like organizing songs in iTunes,” she writes. It’s “just another reason to consider a Mac.”

She hadn’t released a new album in five years. But that spell ended dramatically when singer/songwriter Erykah Badu sat down in front of her MacBook and fired up GarageBand. The music surged. “I learned how to use GarageBand by trial and error,” Badu says. “It’s like somebody stuck a plug in the back of my neck and uploaded a program to learn how to use GarageBand. It was automatic. Everything on that Mac was automatic.”