Keeping Your Mac Applications Up To Date
Thursday, 29 May 2008
I have a ton of applications siting on my hard drive but keeping them up to date has been a huge problem considering I only use a few of them religiously. Newer Cocoa applications have a built-in updater powered by the Sparkle framework which is the brainchild of Andy Matuschak. Sparkle is a great module but it does not solve the problem for me.
After some research on MacUpdate and VersionTracker, I came across various applications which might do the trick for me.
AppFresh helps you to keep all applications, widgets, preference panes and application plugins installed on your Mac up to date. I must add that it provides a seamless integration with Mac OS X. It uses the database on osx.iusethis.com and once an update is available, you have the choice of downloading or installing it.
Apart from leveraging osx.iusethis.com, it uses Apple Software Update, Sparkle, Microsoft AutoUpdate and Adobe Updater to ensure all your commercial applications are up to date as well.
Please note that AppFresh is still in beta and the development preview is buggy at times.
Another app to check out is LogicielMac Update by MacXeagle.
LogicielMac Update is similar to AppFresh but instead of being a full-blown application, it sits on your menu bar and automatically checks for updates periodically. I must admit that LogicielMac Update looks really good with a minimalist HUD style. As with AppFresh, updates are automatically installed as well.
Both AppFresh and LogicielMac Update are freeware.
The final product is VersionTracker Pro which works very similarly to AppFresh. It is a desktop application that uses the immense database on VersionTracker.com to ensure your applications are up to date. One major downside of VersionTracker Pro is that there is an annual subscription of US$49.95. Considering that the other alternatives are free, I highly recommend AppFresh and LogicielMac Update before plunking down 50 bucks for VersionTacker Pro.
One last thing, do check out Aurora 4 by MetaQuark as well. It’s a great alarm clock for your Mac!
