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.?

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.?

?After about a month on the market,? reports Arik Hsseldahl (businessweek.com) ?Time Capsule is proving to be far and away the market leader.? Hesseldahl notes that ?Steve Baker of market research firm NPD called it the ?dominant product in its category.??

When it opens its doors to customers on May 15, the Apple Retail Store on Boylston Street ? located in the heart of Boston?s historic Back Bay ? becomes the largest Apple Store in the US. Customers will enjoy hands-on access to the Mac, iPhone, and iPod on the first two floors, and on the third, they?ll find a Genius Bar and Boston?s first Pro Labs, offering free, in-depth training on Apple?s pro applications.

HBO and Apple today announced that customers can now purchase and download critically acclaimed HBO shows ? including such Emmy Award-winning programs as The Sopranos, Sex and the City, Deadwood, and Rome ? from iTunes. ?We?re very excited to make these legendary HBO programs available on the iTunes Store,? said Henry McGee, president of HBO Video.

On Monday, June 9, a team of Apple executives led by CEO Steve Jobs will kick off the company?s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address, Apple today announced. The keynote showcases two revolutionary development platforms: Mac OS X Leopard and OS X iPhone, the world?s most advanced mobile operating system.

Using .Mac sync in Mac OS X Leopard, you can synchronize most of your personal data ? including contacts, bookmarks, iCal events, Dock items, Dashboard widgets and more ? among the multiple Macs you use at work and home. In fact, .Mac Sync even lets you add your iPhone to the mix. Find out how by watching the latest Quick Tip of the Week.

?You can?t imagine how satisfying it is to know that if your hard drive dies, you will lose no more than one hour of work,? relates David Pogue (nytimes.com) in his review of Time Capsule. ?The Time Machine automatic backup feature of the latest Mac OS X version backs up your Macs onto the Time Capsule, automatically, constantly, completely and wirelessly. And in my book, automatic, constant, complete backups are the only kind that really count.?

Using his 24-inch iMac, Jean-Pierre Hébert, the 68-year-old artist-in-residence at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at UC Santa Barbara, California, creates ?algorithmic art? in a variety of media?from sand to copper to tree bark. ?Mac OS X is a very good environment for me to work in,? he says. ?It offers the best of all possible worlds.?

The first online science and nature film series, TERRA lets us enjoy the compelling documentaries produced by the grad students in the Science and Natural History Film Program at Montana State University. Through multiple seasons of programming, TERRA introduces us to the nature of our world.

?If your mom or dad has a Mac, help them safeguard their digital heirlooms with Apple?s Time Capsule,? implores Eric M. Strauss (abcnews.com). ?Time Capsule combines simple setup and a speedy wireless network with automatic backup in a tidy box. Plus, recovering Aunt Chippie?s first black-jack victory photo after your mom?s hard drive crashes will certainly make it all worth the cost.?

If you?ve developed a great application using the iPhone SDK, a new web application for iPhone, or new software for Mac OS X Leopard, you could be honored with an Apple Design Award. This year, Apple offers awards in seven categories. But, hurry, the application deadline ends next Monday ? on May 12.

If you?re browsing the web on a public computer, the last thing you want to do is leave personal information about yourself behind for others to discover. Of course, if you use Safari, you have a number of ways to safeguard your privacy while browsing publicly. Read about them in this week?s Pro Tip of the Week.

?A slate of under-the-hood improvements have facilitated a performance spike in the standard models that makes them an especially good value for people looking to upgrade,? reports Roman Loyola (macworld.com) in his recent review of the new iMac. ?The 2.8GHz iMac, in all its 24-inch glory, is a stunning machine and is bound to make an impression in your home or office,? Loyola concludes.

Nik Software today announced that its eagerly awaited Viveza plug-in for Aperture 2.1 is available for immediate download. Powered by U Point technology, the Viveza plug-in lets photographers make localized enhancements to brightness, contrast, or color without ever having to leave Aperture. ?With the power and popularity of Aperture, we want our customers to decide how and where they edit their digital photos,? said Michael J. Slater president and CEO of Nik Software.

A great way to text, set up video conferences with multiple parties, or host remote Keynote presentations, iChat also offers a fast and simple way to exchange large files with clients or colleagues. Find out how by watching the latest Quick Tip of the Week.

In his glowing review of the new 8-core Xserve, Tom Yager (infoworld.com) asserts that it ?breaks the PC server mold with big iron-class reliability, availability, and serviceability features, but with neither the big iron price tag nor management complexity.? A great option for small business, ?Xserve is built and supported to run not for one or two years, but three years, five years, and beyond.?

At Intezyne Technologies, viruses, spyware, and endless restarts kept researchers at the biotechnology startup from job one: finding better treatments for catastrophic illnesses. But the company put their computer ills behind them once they switched to the Mac. ?Working on a Mac allows me to spend more time calculating and analyzing my data, and less time trying to figure out what?s wrong with my computer,? says co-founder Kurt Breitenkamp.

To celebrate the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival, such talented artists as Tony Gilroy, Amy Poehler, Clive Owen. Errol Morris, Jeremiah Zagar, and Wong Kar Wai came to the Apple Retail Store, SoHo, to speak about their latest projects. Now you can enjoy their talks, too, by downloading the latest podcasts.

If your Mom?s not comfortable with computers, consider computer training as a Mother?s Day gift this year, suggests Troy Wolverton (mercurynews.com). Apple offers ?a program it calls One to One. For $99, the service provides a year?s worth of once-a-week, hourlong training sessions for Mac users.? Or you could consider one of these other options for Mother?s Day.