14 DAY TRIAL // MacRumors has picked up on a Wired piece citing Hackintosh users who've recently upgraded to Mac OS X 10.5.7, the latest version of the Leopard operating system, to find that their computers' battery life has substantially improved.
Hackintoshes are computers hacked to run Apple's Mac OS X. The practice is not supported by Apple, although it pretty much seems as if Hackintosh users are the Mac maker's unknowing beta testers for an upcoming Apple netbook.
“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,” reads the Wired piece citing Dalton63841, who “has tested this to make sure it's not just over-optimistic reporting by the OS. Another poster is also seeing a boost from three and a half to four and a half hours,” the report outlines.
It is interesting, to say the least, that Apple's latest incremental update to Leopard hasn't broken these hacks. The update should not only have crippled Hackintoshes, but should have also delivered a bunch of compatibility issues, both hardware and software. Such issues generally take their toll on the battery. Not 10.5.7, though. This is as far as we dare speculate. You can post your own beliefs in the comments.
Apple's 10.5.7 update to Leopard issued earlier this week delivered tons of under-the-hood fixes and tweaks, with only a handful of visible changes. However, the software isn't issue-free, with dozens (if not hundreds) of users reporting freezing problems, blue screens, non-working Mail.app and iChat accounts, non-responding peripherals, and more.
Apple is believed to have released the last incremental update to Leopard before the launch of Mac OS X 10.6, a.k.a Snow Leopard, this summer / autumn. The new OS promises an extremely stable user experience, with maximum resource optimizations and even a better user interface, whose unveiling is being held off until the WWDC '09 keynote, set to be delivered by Phil Schiller (SVP of Product Marketing, Apple).
Anyone here on a Hackintosh? How's your experience?