Netbook battery life given a boost by the 10.5.7 update
 

http://www.infinitemac.com/images/news/hack_netbook.jpgAccording to Wired, the recent Mac OS X 10.5.7 update has apparently given Hackintosh netbooks a significant boost to battery life of up to 33%.

Here’s a rather odd little tidbit regarding Apple’s latest update to OS X. While it doesn’t bring many -new features to the Mac, consisting as it does of-mostly-bug-fixes, OS X 10.5.7 apparently gives a significant boost to battery-life on hackintoshes. Reports from the MSI Wind forums are claiming a boost up to 33%, from-3 hr 45 min to a shade over five hours, using a six-cell-4400 mAh battery.

"It’s entirely possible that the OS update contains better power management for the Mac. What is surprising, though, is that it is having such an impact on these hackintoshes, which are notoriously bad for battery usage when running OS X. Needless to say, I’m grabbing the huge (729MB) update for my Wind right now. With its monster nine-cell battery, I’m hoping to get around ten hours of use out of it. I’ll let you know how it goes."

Recently there has been speculation that Apple 'might' be entering the netbook market with it's own fabled product. This update, which seems to provide better power management and support for low end processors such as the Intel Atom, has further increased speculation that a new product could be around the corner.

However, speculation is nothing more than rumours and guesses and should be taken with a pinch of salt.

OMG, dying to see, that.

"It's entirely possible" ? I guess Wired is short on staff to do a detailed analysis of a simple diff of AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext, AppleGraphicsPowerManagement.kext, and AppleFan.kext, and probably one or two others.

Instead of being complacent with a battery technology that is a half-century old, and getting excited for a couple more hours of battery life, more people should be informed and adding some more stimuli to develop better battery technology. It's understandably slow due to its inherent chemical identity, but this type of news only amplifies the fact that we have over-abundance of EE majors and engineers, w/o equal enthusiasm for chemistry. Now, how can we make chemistry sexy again?

As far as i know, new kind of batteries are already there - but still not used. First one of this type ( at least the first of which i've heard ) was used in Nokia's cell phone - around 30 days on standby. Anyway, i can report that my laptop ( BenQ P52 ) works longer with 10.5.7, but i cant say 33%. I'd say about 10% or so. Anyone else tried if it works longer after update ?

Surprisingly it my "SYSTEM 1" (see sig.) does seem to last a little longer.
about 14%. The battery doesn't last long anyway, so it seems 10.5.7 has given it a little nudge.

Well, there is advancements, small and big....

Google search Nvidia Tegra, and check its specs, and supposed battery life expectancy ;).
But this is just the ice breaker.

Are you sure the source is available?

clayjar, I think it's more than that. I know a lot of smart people who went and are still going into policy, business, law-- even with advanced degrees. It's almost like were turning our back on what made America great. Sigh.

Anyway, I'd put my bets less on the chemical technology, than on the nanotech hybrid battery-capacitor technology that's been demonstrated in several labs. Once they get the density up-- you'd have much of the bennies of fast charge caps, with the storage capacity of batteries...