Freshen those apps
manfred | 17 November 2009
Apple Software Update is adequate to keep your Mac humming along with the very latest official software that your Mac arrived with. But over the course of any time period it is unlikely that your Mac will be filled with only Apple software. Keeping up to date with a variety of applications downloaded from who-knows-where can be a challenge. That’s where AppFresh comes in. It takes on the task of creating an inventory of all the applications you’ve installed on Mac OS X, then goes out into the wide Interweb to determine whether a newer version of any of those applications is available.
The great thing about AppFresh is that it checks the status of your Mac at any point in time, so no persistent databases are created that may ignore a very new piece of software you may have installed. It’s also a free application, and as a bonus, developed by Germans. Has to work well then, right 
After it’s been installed, AppFresh checks what’s in the Applications folder and then goes out to check for updates to those applications.
A concise list of all updates found is displayed. Even better, clicking on an entry that links to an update causes that update to be downloaded and, at the user’s behest, automatically installed.
The automatic installation is a great feature, though I’ve turned it off for the following reason: certain updates require user intervention – entering a password, for example. In the case of the Drobo Dashboard, the Drobo needs to be ejected before an update can be applied. In this sense, AppFresh wrongly assumes the applicatin was updated properly. I’m assuming that no proper error codes are returned to indicate that the application update failed. Whatever the case, for a better overview and to possibly transfer updates to the Mini and the MacBook I simply have AppFresh download the latest updates to my Downloads folder from where I manually install them.
To show that this is not just about third-party applications, AppFresh also provides information on the latest Apple software updates and, of course, about itself. It’s a great utility that makes life a lot easier and makes worrying about finding all the necessary updates to applications a thing of the past. Further details for any software component are provided. Simply click on an application to see a description of the suggested upgrade and read comments posted by users.
Integration with i use this provides a backend from which the latest application updates are read and from where application ratings can be determined, based on user opinions. Registration on the i use this service is free and optional – not a bad service to have access to at all. It’s also available for Windows users.
For anyone who needs to maintain upgrades to various applications on the Mac, AppFresh is worth a look. Highly recommended.
