Overview

Appfresh does exactly what its name says it does: it keeps your apps fresh. How? Appfresh integrates with the popular website iusethis.com, which is a database that catalogs new and popular Mac applications and notifies users when updates become available. Appfresh acts as a sort of "front door" to the iusethis database and matches all of your Mac's applications up with those listed on iusethis.

Every time you open Appfresh, the utility scans your computer and identifies any applications with new updates listed on iusethis. If you already have an iusethisaccount, you can mark which programs you use on the site and Appfresh will sync up with your account. Appfresh will also sync back to the iusethis website each time you use the program, so any new software is automatically added to your iusethis profile.

Appfresh splits your applications into three categories: update available, up to date and unknown. The first time I used Appfresh, the program placed a large number of my programs and plugins in the unknown category, including programs like Firefox, 1Password and Delicious Library 2. It turned out that I had to click another refresh button and the list of programs in the unknown category dropped significantly the second time through.

Appfresh's update process consists of a single button. You click the button and Appfresh does the work. You can choose to update all applications at the same time or pick and choose individually.

Nitpicks

One key aspect of the way Appfresh works, is its integration with your applications and this was one of the few hiccups I experienced while testing the program. When I went to update the popular note taking software Evernote, I let Appfresh download the update and upgrade Evernote to the latest version. The next time I launched Evernote, however, the program informed me that an update was available--the very same update that I downloaded and "installed" with Appfresh only minute earlier! I'm not sure why this happened but I'm sure the Metaquark folks will continually improve little nags like this as they work through the beta process.

While Appfresh generally works as advertised, one feature surprisingly absent is a help file. Users are greeted with a "Help isn't available for Appfresh" dialogue box in the program. While Metaquark does feature an Appfresh support tab on its website, the tab is merely a contact form and not a support forum or list of FAQs which could help users immediately.

One other commonly requested feature amongst Appfresh users on iusethis is integration with other similar software tracking websites like Version Tracker or MacUpdate. As it stands now, Appfresh is beholden to the software listed on iusethis so if an application is not listed on the site, Appfresh's integration won't mean much.

Summary

Appfresh is a good beta program and worth a look even now, as it continues its development. As with any beta program, users should backup applications before using the software. Appfresh is free while in beta development.

This review was written by Brendan Wilhide

Author: Brendan Wilhide