Disk and system utilities, like our flagship product TechTool Pro, are great for repairing disk issues and recovering data after something goes terribly wrong. But what if there was a way to catch these problems sooner? What if there was a product that would continuously monitor all of the important parameters of your system and run regular diagnostic tests to detect small problems before they turn into complete disasters?
Introducing Checkmate, the computer health monitoring software by Micromat. We created Checkmate to be a powerful computer diagnostic product without more...
What's New
Version 1.1.3:
Note: Users can update to version 1.1.3 from inside the app.
OS X 10.9.5 (Mavericks) and OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) compatibility.
Fixed an issue in which the Battery test would not run under OS X 10.10.
Fixed missing Checkmate Preferences toolbar while using low screen resolutions.
Disk and system utilities, like our flagship product TechTool Pro, are great for repairing disk issues and recovering data after something goes terribly wrong. But what if there was a way to catch these problems sooner? What if there was a product that would continuously monitor all of the important parameters of your system and run regular diagnostic tests to detect small problems before they turn into complete disasters?
Introducing Checkmate, the computer health monitoring software by Micromat. We created Checkmate to be a powerful computer diagnostic product without being an intrusion to your work. The software observes your schedule and performs testing when your computer is idle. It then quietly logs results and stays completely out of your way - unless it finds a serious problem. Then it will alert you to the issue and open the Checkmate dashboard so you not only get a full report of the issue, but also read suggested steps you can take to correct the problem.
And Checkmate couldn't be simpler to use: simply install it and forget about it. You won't even know it's there until it finds a problem and alerts you. No buttons to push, no schedules to set and no interruptions to your work.
If you count on your Macintosh, make sure your Macintosh counts on Checkmate. Because an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of
Version 1.1.3:
Note: Users can update to version 1.1.3 from inside the app.
OS X 10.9.5 (Mavericks) and OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) compatibility.
Fixed an issue in which the Battery test would not run under OS X 10.10.
Fixed missing Checkmate Preferences toolbar while using low screen resolutions.
Updated German and Japanese localizations.
Other minor fixes and enhancements.
A $30 disk utility with very little real utility. Checkmate brings to bear exactly zero tools to fix any and all problems it might discover. Since several freeware and cheap shareware apps offer system monitoring (and more), and it’s available as an additional but secondary feature in the more comprehensive disk utilities, in my opinion Checkmate is overpriced by a factor of 3. In fact, I’d probably balk even at a $10 price point.
This is such featureless and incapable software that even its developer is at a loss for words to articulate its virtues. His smarmy product description (above) goes on for 4 paragraphs without saying much about what Checkmate actually does and even less about how it does it. It’s just a bunch of marketing drivel, though I suppose he couldn’t have said much more about such meritless junk.
So, if you can afford only one disk utility, my recommendation is to go with TechTool Pro (but NOT its diminutive sibling ProToGo). For many years, I’ve been a true believer in DiskWarrior’s supremacy over TechTool Pro at rebuilding a corrupt or unbalanced directory, which is by far the most common cause of non-hardware problems in OS X. Since I bought licenses for both apps over ten years, DW has repeatedly and handily corrected many problems that TTP couldn’t fix or missed altogether — a shame because with such a halfassed main feature, TTP’s wealth of other capabilities are insufficient to justify its $100 price. But the good news — especially for the developer — is that Micromat’s flagship product, TechTool Pro, has improved markedly with the introduction of version 7.x and subsequent updates. Its directory rebuilding is still a bit inferior to DiskWarrior’s, but at its current pace of development it may be on par or superior to DW by the beginning of 2015. If you’d like a more thorough comparison of TTP and the other leading contender, DiskWarrior, I’ve done some informal but fairly rigorous research and presented my findings on MacUpdate’s TTP and DW pages:
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/4307/techtool-pro (1 comment) http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/11707/DiskWarrior (multiple comments, some may be on subsequent pages)
Hopefully I’ve made my opinion clear that this app is ulcerous, fetid rubbish.
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