On Friday, Apple announced that it's currently in the process of making back-end changes to its .Mac architecture in order to provide new features to users upgrading to Mac OS X 10.5 ("Leopard"). The computer manufacturer also announced that it would be making changes to the syncing infrastructure, upping the required operating system to Mac OS X 10.4.x and degrading some functionality for Mac OS X 10.3.x ("Panther") users.

According to MacFixIt, the company intends to provide new features, such as the ability to sync Dashboard widget, Dock item, application and system preferences to other Mac OS X 10.5 users, but has stated that users running versions of Mac OS X previous to Mac OS X 10.4.x may receive the error message ".Mac Sync Client is out of date."

The end result will generate a situation in which Mac OS X 10.3.x users will be unable to sync calendars between their Mac and a Mac running on Mac OS X 10.4.x. Apple has stated that computers both running Mac OS X 10.3.x will still be able to sync their calendars.

Not the best news in the universe, especially for older Mac owners without the horsepower to run Mac OS X 10.4.x.

Let us know what you think over in the comments or forums.