Weekly troubleshooting utilities update

Our utilities update report is a list of updates for Mac utilities that have been released in the past week. Though a utility can be any tool that helps you perform a routine task (including image manipulation and synchronization), our focus in this column is to bring you those tools that help in troubleshooting Mac hardware and software problems. This week the most updates are with hardware-monitoring and management utilities, with one for data recovery and another for system tweaking utilities.

Hardware
The main utilities this week are with those that manage the system's hardware, either by providing information or the ability to tweak and adjust it.

Display Maestro is a utility that will allow you to fine tune your display output, which can be especially useful for people running multiple monitors or who have specialized display setups. The new version sports a new crash-reporting option, as well as fixes a slew of bugs ranging from interface elements and GUI behavior to potential crashes during use. The program is $4.95 for a license.

CoconutBattery is a small attempt to bring you battery information based on Apple's "Core Data" frameworks. The tool is a simple interface and is clearly a work in progress that appears to be more of a demonstration of some Core Data capabilities, but may be useful especially to those who are troubleshooting their batteries. The tool is free software.

The last hardware-based utility updated this week is RAID Monitor, which will actively check your mounted RAID sets and warn you of issues you may need to resolve. The latest update fixes an issue with duplicate e-mail warnings being sent out when the program detects an error. RAID Monitor is $30 for a license.

Data recovery
In data recovery utilities, R-Studio Data Recovery has been updated to fix a number of small bugs with the program, as well as improve the program's scanning and aspects of its interface. The utility is a file recovery tool that will scan a number of supported filesystems, including HFS, FAT, NTFS, UFS, and EXT formats. The program is a full commercial suite and will cost $79.99 for a license.

Maintenance and optimization
Though not really a troubleshooting utility, MacPilot will allow you to tweak and customize a number of OS X settings, including hidden ones or those that are relatively difficult to get to. The latest update fixes bugs with managing launch services and setting Finder options when using a simple Finder interface. It also changes the way the program sends crash reports to the developers. MacPilot has a 15-day trial but will cost $19.95 for a full license.

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