If you keep up with technology at all, you know that all software has bugs (sometimes LOTS of bugs), and many applications contain security risks. You probably also know that many companies and independent developers regularly release updates to patch these problems, as well as to occasionally add new features. You probably receive occasional reminders for certain apps, or for your operating system. Wouldn’t it be nice to be notified whenever any of these new releases are available? In fact, you can. Read on….
Making Updating Easier
For many years I used the software from VersionTracker.com to check my applications. This was a great time saver, since it would do all the checking for me. (MacUpdate.com has a similar app.) Although the software helped, it was far from perfect. It was very buggy and slow — rather off-putting, for something that actually costs money! Still, I stuck with it for lack of other options.
But then … along came AppFresh. Although it is not perfect either, it is far faster, funner, and better than the other similar update checkers I’ve used.
What does AppFresh do? It checks all your software and reports which programs can be updated. It will also tell you what has changed (if that information has been provided to the site). Besides apps, it also checks plugins, widgets, preference panes, and system updates.
And — for now, at least — the program is free!
IUseThis.com
AppFresh has built-in support for IUseThis.com. This website has several uses: It lets you brag to all the other site users about what great software you have. It also lets you find similar software, and see which apps in each category are the most popular. You can also read comments left by other users about each app. And, in conjunction with AppFresh, it lets you see how your software setup varies between machines (for example, reminding you that you don’t have an app on this computer, that you have on another computer).
If you’re curious, here is my IUseThis.com profile: http://osx.iusethis.com/user/distantthunder
(The list is a little out of date. And, yes, I admit: I’m a bit of a software junkie!)
End Notes
In the old days, I tried hard to keep all my software up to date, but my library of software has grown so large, I can no longer maintain it all. Now I limit myself to only updating the programs I actually use regularly, and rely mostly on the built-in update checking for the less-used apps. However, even this can be quite tedious. In the past I would check for updates as often as once a week; now I limit myself to checking once a month. (I’ll toss the Linux crowd a cookie, because Linux makes the process quite easy — even hard to avoid.)
Windows users: VersionTracker’s software is available for Windows, but I prefer the free update checker from FileHippo.com.