While OS X themers wait patiently on the new “Leopard compatible” Shapeshifter release, many have turned to dock enhancements to liven up their Leopard GUI. At Dockulicious you will not only find a dock switching application, but also a user based gallery in which you can upload your own skins. The creators of Dockulicious have also provided all the files you need to edit your own images for the Leopard dock. (link) I’ve also been waiting, but not so patiently on the new theming apps. In my search for customization in Leopard, I’ve longed to see the clear dock once enabled by an all too missed Tiger haxie, and Clear Dock v1.1 by Obub (link) has brought it to us at Dockulicious. Download the free DockSwitcher.app and additional files to create your own, or grab a copy of Clear Dock… and make Leopard yours today!(link)

Finally, I think that The Missing Sync for Windows Mobile has struck gold. After reluctantly upgrading to the “new” OS X platform, Leopard, I installed version 4.0.2 of the Missing Sync. After shucking out the 40 some odd clams for this application over a year ago, it actually synced. OMG, I was beside myself with joy. Not only that, the horrible trouble I was having syncing my iPod with iTunes in Tiger 10.4.11 has mysteriously vanished with the upgrade to Leopard. But with all good things, especially an upgrade to a “new” operating system, there’s a price to pay, and I’m not talking about the initial over-the-counter expense. I have yet to figure out what’s up with Mail.app, iCal and various other system applications. So, as I’m jumping for joy that I have actually been able to Sync my PDA with my Mac, ironically I won’t have anything to actually sync until hopefully the 10.5.2 update is released, fixing, what I suspect to be very odd permissions problems in my new version of OS X, Leopard.

I’m very pleased with Leopard. Many long time Mac users have mixed feelings about the “new” O/S. I’m in love with my System applications. I recommend them and use them religiously. There are many published fixes to the problems, I’ve found googling the subject. But to my dismay, none seem to be an all around “complete” correction. I thought I had actually reliably come up with a solution. As I am a firm believer in not fixing what’s not broken, I didn’t upgrade my Tiger build to Leopard. Instead I added an additional hard drive and installed Leopard separately. With having my old standby available, I went into my Tiger drive and gave my Leopard drive all the permissions that I thought would be needed to get most of the system applications working. This temporarily gave me at least permission to open the Mail.app itself. (Don’t use this unless you are quite familiar with the new order of system files of Leopard and it’s variable security features.)

I know that the new update scheduled for release is going to be available the first part of January, so don’t give up on Leopard. For the most part, it’s exactly what we’ve hoped. It’s beautiful, functional and full of great new much needed features. If you haven’t taken the great plunge just yet, wait, but be sure to get it as soon as the 10.5.2 update is released. I promise you won’t be sorry. Just another opinion, Camxso