In my household, we have years-old receipts stored in grocery bags, and no memory of who borrowed our favorite, not-made-anymore PlayStation games, both of which could be remedied by a database. Instead of just storing information, a true database acts on it, reminding you about deadlines, dynamically sorting contacts based on upcoming birthdays, and otherwise remixing your data. But iDatabase 1.0 does none of this. You’re better off with the grocery bag.

The new iPhoto ’11 looks amazing—and that’s a great thing for software that helps you get the most out of your photos. But it’s more than just a pretty face, letting you actually do some pretty amazing things with all those pixels. Apple built in major enhancements to the full-screen mode, slideshow templates, and online sharing tools. But iPhoto isn’t just about zeroes and ones—’11 boasts improved book-design tools and a new letterpress-card feature for those extra-special anniversaries and events, making it that much easier and more satisfying to bridge the gap between the digital and physical worlds.

When Apple rolled out iLife ’11, it touted the fact that more than 5 million folks are using GarageBand to create music, podcasts, and other types of audio, making it one of the most successful DAW (digital audio workstation) programs of all time. With this newly updated revision, there are even more reasons to really dig this maestro of a music-making app.

Perhaps the single most important new editing addition, Flex Time, has been brought over from GarageBand’s older sibling, Logic. Simply grab a part of a sampled audio track—a guitar lick or a vocal—and instantly drag it to a new position in time, with extremely smooth—and musically useful—results. It’s a study in effortless, clear interface design, and once you drag a guitar lick into place with it, you’ll instantly be hooked. GarageBand is incredibly smart about automatically grabbing the desired audio segment, and adjusting either the head or tail of the waveform based on where you click the mouse.