Keeping the applications on your Mac up-to-date is important, on the one hand because only by doing so can you be sure that they work properly and interact correctly with each other, and, on the other hand, because, with every update, the developers offer you additional features or improve bugs, which can tremendously simplify your work.
But your Mac OS X has already provided you a handy Software Update utility, you might say. That is true, but not in its entirety. This tool does check the status of your applications from time to time and even notifies you whenever it finds something that needs to be updated, but the problem lies in the fact that it interrupts you from your work and this could be really annoying sometimes.
AppFresh offers you an alternative, in the sense that it can quietly scan your data and install the updates without wasting your time. Furthermore, it offers you a bunch of additional pieces of information for every single selected application – which sometimes might even save you time and money.
The Looks When you open the application, you are offered the possibility to use the IUseThis Integration feature. This means that, if you already have an IUseThis account, you can specify your login data in the welcoming window, so that AppFresh can sync with your account and automatically check for updates, especially for the third-party applications. If you haven't created an account yet, you can register right from AppFresh.
If, on the contrary, you don't want to use either of these options, you can proceed to the next step. The AppFresh main window includes three panels: one narrow, left panel, where you can see the update status for all of your applications, one central, wider area, where you can add or remove different columns with information regarding a particular group of applications and, finally, a right panel of customizable width, where you will be shown more details regarding each selected application.
In the left panel, you will first see a complete list with all the applications on your disk, categorized by their update status: Updates Available, Up to Date and Unknown.
In the group below, AppFresh suggests a categorization of the updates by program types, as follows: Applications, Plugins, Widgets, Preference Panes or System Updates.
After such a categorization, some users might feel the need of grouping the applications by vendors. Luckily, AppFresh supports this requirement too. In the next group, one will see a short list with the most important vendors, including Apple, Microsoft and Adobe. The unrecognized ones are grouped in a separate folder that has a generic name: Third-Party.
Right under the Vendor's group, but above My Categories (a generic group name for the categories that you will probably want to create in the future), you can see the IUseThis options. In short, this option allows you to easily rate an application and to share the fact that you like and you use a particular application with your friends. On the other hand, if you are logged into your IUseThis account, you will have the option to check what applications are currently being employed by your friends and, who knows, maybe the chance to learn something new.
The Works AppFresh is really intuitive and easy to use. From the very beginning, even if you are not logged in to your IUse account, you are offered the possibility to see the results of an unfiltered updates' check.
After you have gotten a glimpse of your applications’ update status, you can start customizing the way the results are being displayed. For instance, with a right click on the Name column in the middle panel, you can select the check box that fits you best: Version, Installed Version, Latest Version, Status Description, Release Date, Last Used, Last Updated, Size or Kind. All those options refer to the columns that will be displayed on the right of each diagnosed application.
Moreover, by using the Application menu, you can report a link as broken, group more applications in a particular category, skip an application update or actually ask AppFresh to update a bunch of applications.
With regard to the third-party applications, things run even smoother: you can ask AppFresh to automatically and securely monitor the updates by syncing with your IUseThis account. AppFresh uses osx.iusethis.com to check for updates of all the applications that are not natively supported.
But this is not all: AppFresh integrates native update checking for the Apple software and various types of system updates, it supports the RSS-based Sparkle update checking and it uses Microsoft AutoUpdate 1 and 2.
The Good AppFresh is undoubtedly a user-friendly application. The appearance of the main window remains clear and concise even if it provides you with quite a bunch of useful information. The names of the categories are chosen wisely, so that even the most novice user can understand what it is all about. Moreover, the aim of keeping you up-to-date with the latest releases, without interrupting you from your work (as the default Apple application does), is accomplished.
The Bad The approach to third-party applications is treated somehow unusually. For the ones that have never heard of IUseThis or that are simply not in the mood for creating a new account, this option might seem a bit bizarre and smell a bit like a sort of ad that you shouldn't care about. Though, after you conquer your suspiciousness towards the many unknowns, you will see that there is nothing to fear of.
The Truth The application seems to be able to do its work well. The GUI is tidy and inviting enough to make you feel you have gained a reliable friend in your struggle to stay up-to-date with the latest releases. At the same time, the provided features seem trustworthy and spare you the necessity to click the "Not Now" button provided by the application in charge with monitoring the updates by default on your Mac.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
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(4/5)
