Microsoft Windows Mobile MVP Paul has released a new mobile application called AppToDate at his forum, Modaco. AppToDate is a freeware application for Windows Mobile devices that does what the name suggests: check for updates for applications and programs on your mobile device and then automatically download and install the most recent and up-to-date version of the software.

Here’s how the AppToDate works. The developer of the software needs to compile an XML file containing three important tags: “version”, “versionurl” and “caburl” which point to the version number, location of the XML file from where AppToDate can get the details of an updated version and location of the actual CAB file to be downloaded respectively. This file needs to be hosted online. When the application version changes, the online XML file needs to be updated with a newer version number. AppToDate compares the two XML files, and if the online one is newer, it downloads and installs the CAB file mentioned in the “caburl” tag.

Currently only the following applications are listed for upgrades but this is bound to change once AppToDate is popularized amongst developers:

.Net CF Config
CamerAware (Beta)
Nested Tasks
NoData

The application has a very simple interface. It displays and categorizes “Out of Date” and “Up to Date” applications separately. If you have more than one program to be updated, you can select the checkbox against the ones that you want to be updated and download all CAB files at once.

Click here to download AppToDate Beta for Windows Mobile devices.