Weekly troubleshooting utilities update
Our Weekly Utilities Update report is a list of all the updates for many Mac utilities that have been released in the past week. Though utilities 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 there are updates mainly for cleaning utilities, but also for one or two hardware, system monitoring, and maintenance utilities. Additionally, a new file and data recovery utility is available.
Our Weekly Utilities Update report is a list of all the updates for many Mac utilities that have been released in the past week. Though utilities 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 there are updates mainly for cleaning utilities, but also for one or two hardware, system monitoring, and maintenance utilities. Additionally, a new file and data recovery utility is available.
Maintenance and Cleaning
The maintenance and cleaning applications that were updated this week are more those that free up hard drive space by clearing out unused temporary items on the hard drive. CleanMyMac has been updated to version 1.9.1 ($14.95), which fixes problems with a few memory leaks and authorization issues, and introduces the option for skins (fun, but relatively useless for maintenance utilites).
Another cleaning utility, MacCleanse ($19.95) has been updated to version 2.0.3, which adds a few new improvements including showing more detailed progress information, automatically restarting the Finder when needed, and a few enhancements to how localizations within application bundles are handled.
The utility "Tidy Up!" ($30.00) has also seen a small update that fixes bugs including one that happens when managing pictures in Aperture.
If you manage log files frequently, the utility Sawmill may be useful; however, it is rather expensive at $199 and is targeted for buisnesses and IT folks. Nevertheless it may be beneficial for rooting out problems in log files.
Hardware Management
The only hardware-related tool updated this week is SwitchResX ($14), which allows you to customize the display output far more than the limited options that are available by default in OS X. This update fixes a couple of memory leaks and adds a few warnings about potential drawbacks to using specific display modes in Snow Leopard.
System Monitoring
The Activity Monitor alternative Peek-A-Boo ($19.95) is a more graphical approach to displaying system resource usage. We covered some of its features in a previous article, and think besides just being fun it has potential to be more appealing for some users. The latest update reduces on-screen clutter by truncating long process names.
Data Recovery
The only data recovery tool updated this week is "FILERECOVERY 2010", which has been updated to version 5.0 and comes in standard ($69.95), professional ($99.95), and enterprise ($199.95) versions. This is a full recovery package similar to those from Stellar Phoenix and R-Studio, and may be useful for some users. Being an initial release there are no fixed or updated problems or features available.
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