During their dinner conversation, Padmé tells Anakin, "Our ship was damaged, and we're stranded here until we can repair it," and he replies, "I can help; I can fix anything." His prodigious technical ability seems to be an attribute of his status as the Chosen One. In the same way that he will restore balance to the Force, he can restore balance to mechanical systems and get them to work again.
Like Return of the Jedi, the title is ambigious. There are three characters who could be "the phantom menace": Anakin, who is only a child in this movie but will grow up to become Darth Vader and terrorize the galaxy; Palpatine, who uses his position as a senator to disguise his identity as a Sith Lord; and Darth Maul, who mysteriously appears in order to track down Queen Amidala and harrass her Jedi protectors.
