Are your Applications up-to-date?
12/09/06 23:10 Filed in: Hints 'n' Tips
Apple Software Update notifies you when Apple releases a hardware or software update - but what about your third-party (non-Apple) software? Fortunately help is a keystroke away!
Most software (at least in its initial stages of development) isn't perfect - it has bugs, lacks features, and so on - and as the developers address the issues and enhance their products, so new versions get released from time to time.
Some applications have built-in version checking, so that when you launch them, they 'phone home' and advise you if there's an update to be had. Not all do, however, and users are reliant on the odd email from the developer (if you've registered/paid) if you're lucky, visiting the developers' websites, or trawling the various update website where developers sometimes post notifications.
But who has the time for all that? For the number of applications I have installed - not me! Now there's a better way to manage this, using a free Dashboard widget (for Mac OS X 10.4.x only), called Application Update.
When you fire up Dashboard (F12), the widget reads what applications you have installed in the most common locations (/Applications but you can add custom paths), reads the bundle info, then heads off to an update site such as Versiontracker (there are others you can also enable) and checks for updates. If it finds something, it'll bounce to get your attention and provide you with clickable links to go and get the update. Simple.
Not all applications post updates to such websites, or are only obtainable from the developer website, or by form filling for example, and sometimes developers forget to change the bundle info from the previous release, so even though you have the latest, AU thinks you don't (you can fix this, too!). It's not perfect, but on the whole it works really well, and is definitely worthy of a look-see.
Oh - and yes, there's even a widget that checks to see if your widgets are up-to-date, too! Get Widget Update by the same author!
Most software (at least in its initial stages of development) isn't perfect - it has bugs, lacks features, and so on - and as the developers address the issues and enhance their products, so new versions get released from time to time.
Some applications have built-in version checking, so that when you launch them, they 'phone home' and advise you if there's an update to be had. Not all do, however, and users are reliant on the odd email from the developer (if you've registered/paid) if you're lucky, visiting the developers' websites, or trawling the various update website where developers sometimes post notifications.
But who has the time for all that? For the number of applications I have installed - not me! Now there's a better way to manage this, using a free Dashboard widget (for Mac OS X 10.4.x only), called Application Update.
Not all applications post updates to such websites, or are only obtainable from the developer website, or by form filling for example, and sometimes developers forget to change the bundle info from the previous release, so even though you have the latest, AU thinks you don't (you can fix this, too!). It's not perfect, but on the whole it works really well, and is definitely worthy of a look-see.