App Update is a free Dashboard Widget, (they do have a donation button on their web site) that can automatically check for updates to your installed software. It supports Apple’s software directory, MacUpdate and Version Tracker. It will present you with a tidy link list of all the updates found, enabling you to read release-notes and download the the updates quickly and painlessly.
I know you can register an application with MacUpdate and get them to tell you when an update is available. I have used AppFresh in the past, but it is an application not a widget, so it may take up more space and it uses “osx.iusethis.com” and may not find all the updates that this application does.
You can specify the directories in which you keep your applications on App Update’s back. To flip it over, just click the little “i” button that appears when you move your mouse pointer over the Widget.
You can also specify recursive directory choices, meaning that App Update will not only look into the specified folder, but also into all its sub-folders (which is very convenient if you group your applications this way).
Features
* Universal binary: Runs natively on Intel & PowerPC Macs
* Check for updates manually or automatically (daily or weekly)
* Built-in online help, accessible at all times by pressing Shift+H, viewable in the widget or the browser
* Can be collapsed into a small icon to conserve Dashboard space
* Support for Growl notifications
* Fast scanning of applications with Spotlight
* Implements Apple’s proposed versioning scheme (TN1132)
* Can check an application’s specific homepage as well (requires knowledge of regular expressions)
* Easily add folders per drag & drop
* If an application isn’t found out of the box, you can easily add the necessary info to make it be found in the ‘Advanced’ dialog in the Widget’s back
* Manage your applications: Right-click an update to expose a drop-down menu in which you can ignore an update, mark it as installed or reveal the application in the Finder
* Compatible with most applications
* Keyboard shortcuts
* Automatically checks for updates to itself, too (once every 24 hours)
* Released under the GPL
Documentation
App Update comes with an extensive online-help functionality built right into it that you can view either right inside the widget or in your browser. While you are able to get App Update running quickly, you may want to have a quick glance at the help file to learn about the wealth of features it supports!
You can access the help at any time by pressing Shift+H or by flipping the widget over and clicking the “?” button.
Download it from here.
