Apple Thoughts - News & Reviews on all things Apple

"When it comes to troubleshooting the Macintosh, there are many utilities available for getting the job done. Some are cheap and some expensive but for most you will have to shell out a bit of cash for a license. However, there are also some very robust free options out there for troubleshooting software problems to managing hardware issues."

There are ten listed here, all of them freeware, that can help you maintain your Mac. To be honest, I've never used any of the ones on this list. However, if you are looking for some simple tools that have specific uses, this list might be just the thing for you.

"Simple question - how's your battery life under iOS 4? We keep wanting better hardware and more features - and better battery life at the same time. How did iOS 4 deliver for you?"

We posted a story about this a day or two ago, related to iOS 4 battery problems, and personally I was rather disappointed in mine. I took the advice of one site and let it drain all the way down once and recharge fully before I used it again, and that seemed to fix my battery issues. While this isn't one of the options in this article, it does has several tips for you if you are also experiencing diminished battery performance. 

"Apple's iPhone Configuration Utility 2.1, released last month, isn't designed as an end-user troubleshooting tool--it's really meant to help enterprise users create configuration profiles for device deployment--but it provides three functions that can be very useful for troubleshooting or security."

It is available from Apple as a direct download, and does offer some interesting tools, although as it says above it is mainly useful for enterprise users.