We at MacThemes love to shapeshift our computers with innovative designs and beautiful themes, but sometimes we just need to return to our interface roots. Mac OS X Leopard, released on the 26th to eager Mac users everywhere, looks to be the greatest version of Mac OS X released yet, with a brand new Aqua sitting on top of 300+ innovations. For a five year-old theme, Aqua has been given a significant facelift, and the myriad of revisions will leave the majority of Aqua aficionados very satisfied.

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Rhino is the latest theme from artist Toner. The theme is slick, combining rounded inset buttons with a nice array of grays, the result of which is a very solid and usable theme that I could use for… well, forever.

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The Theme for a Week contest may have passed - but the winners, like glossy phoenixes rising from the gradient grave, live on! Our contest developers have been hard at work making the contest winner’s themes a reality, and today they have some shots to share. All of the themes are looking very robust, and together display an excellent variety from dark to light - meaning that whether you are a hardened Quinn player sitting in a basement, or a trendy guy in a sunny penthouse wearing fitted jeans, there will be something for you! So stay calm, kids - Aeroesque, Plexis and Wather Color are making great progress. To see pictures just click here.

Disingenuous, Susumu Yoshida’s latest venture in theming, released last week on his website, abandoned the colors and gloss of themes like Cats and Eternal and instead adopted an all-grey appearance. As a long-time MacThemes resident artist, everyone expects high quality in the aesthetics department of his themes and icons- but is Disingenuous a unique release, and does it attract appeal from users of themes like Cats?

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It’s not often you ever encounter a theme like GAIA, revealed by technici and Resident Themer Hirogen, along with several other contributors, a few weeks back to much anticipation and excitement, and finally released to over 7 pages of forum discussion in a single day. But does GAIA live up to its hype as a community suite, and can it become the reigning theme of a user’s desktop?

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MacThemes’ Theme For a Week Contest’s first act has drawn to a close, and now it’s time for the user’s involvement. 55 titillating entries are competing for a chance to be one of the three winners of a software cornucopia worth over $1000. With such a grandiose prize at stake, we want to make sure that the winners are deserving, and so half of the total score of a theme will be based on the popular vote, so come one, come all, and vote for your favorite and most deserving theme. Starting today, August 8th, voting opens to MacThemes frequenters and outsiders alike, and to give the indecisive among us as much time to ponder their choice as they need, voting runs until Wednesday, the 15th.

Well the entry period has now come to a close. We’ve received 50+ outstanding entries, the majority coming from unknown artists. The success of this contest goes to show that the Mac GUI community is still alive and kickin’. Judging is currently taking place and will run through the 15th. Right now, the judges are hard at work reviewing, rating, and commenting on the entries, so sit tight! Public voting will start on wednesday, the 8th. Thank you all for making this contest such a success!

V23, a new theme by Themesmith, was released to positive response from forum members, who hailed it as a very usable dark theme. Consisting of light and dark grays, shrunken glyphs, and bright-colored accents, its design will delight users of the author’s previous work, Frankentheme, as well as other dark themes like Ashen, Cold and Photopro; but who else will be drawn to V23, and how in-depth does the theme go?

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