AppFresh is a preview application that I have been using for a while now.
Now, I hasten to add that the screen shot below was taken from my MacBook after I had moved all the apps and data over from the PowerBook as I had deliberately not updated the application so that I could test out this application – honest! As you can imagine I have a lot of applications installed across a number of Macs so some of the older reviewed applications don’t always get updated on every Mac – as you can see!
I wouldn’t advise you to try and do a mass upgrade – it crashed several times when I tried that and in total I had 27 applications that Iusethis.com didn’t recognise so that is a limitation, but all in all a useful looking application that I can see myself using as part of my monthly maintenance activities.
AppFresh helps you to keep all applications (third-party and Apple), widgets, preference panes and application plugins on your Mac up to date, from one place. It works by checking the excellent iusethis.com for new versions and lets you download and install available updates easily.
Find Out How Many Updates Are Available
How do you keep track of the latest versions for all your installed applications? Apple’s built-in Software Update helps keep software like iTunes and Mac OS X updated, but what about the rest? A lot of applications on your Mac don’t include their own update checker and even if they do, they don’t work from a central place. With AppFresh, you’re in control to decide what updates get installed. Spend your time using your applications, not keeping them up to date.
Iusethis.com Profile Integration
AppFresh not only gets update information from iusethis.com. If you have an user profile at iusethis.com you can manage it from within AppFresh and control which applications appear in your profile, even automatically. We can only recommend you sign up; it’s free and lets you see how many users use a certain application. In AppFresh, the full iusethis.com application page with comments and links to similar apps is always just a click away.
Time Machine Included Already
AppFresh can capture the installed version of an application along with your preferences and application data and store it in a safe place. This way, you’re covered in case you decide you liked the last version of an application better. Create as many snapshots as you want to make sure you don’t lose anything.
Work In Progress
AppFresh is currently work in progress, and we’re not even calling it a beta.
I tried this out a while ago and I wasn’t sure about it then and I’m still unsure now. I’d be happier if everyone just built Sparkle into their apps so that the updates are more automatic and I don’t have to worry about a thing.
I mean, yeah, it’s cool enough and seemed to work well (despite crashing mid-way through on my PowerBook) but I personally won’t be using this app.
That would be cool.
I can see some value for those apps that you don’t use that often. For the day to day stuff you know when an update is due.
For the rest it can be very frustrating when you want to use them to open them up and find there is an upgrade. I can’t always remember all the apps I have to be honest, so to use ths every month to check what needs updating and then decide if I need to update seems kind of handy.
If this works I think it will be very valuble for the simple reason how many times do you forget to click “check for updates on start” and not all devs will build in sparkle.
I now try to limit myself to my most needed apps and just get rid of the rest. While this app was more useful for me back in the day when I’d have so many apps I couldn’t check them all for updates, right now whatever I do use seems to use Sparkle… or it’s big and commercial (like Parallels) with huge announcements over upgrades.
I realise a lot of devs won’t build in Sparkle – but it would be nice if they did. To have this as a unified framework in something like the new Xcode release in Leopard would be great.
(sidenote: WWDC – happy or not? :P)
I can see that – but with the number of Apps that I have installed through the reviews it will be helpful.
Just posted on WWDC – but yes, happy. At least my bank manger will be!!!
Interesting little app. Taken the recommended precautions of unticking the 2 automated features as it is a ‘preview’. Then allowed the Appfresh to scan – alerted me to several apps that need updating some of which I wasn’t aware of. Very cool.