Apple may not be releasing a netbook (or at least now one as we know it) anytime soon. But that doesn’t mean the company isn’t releasing software for netbooks. In what I can only guess is a happy accident, MSI Wind users who have installed hacked versions of OS X on their netbooks report that upgrading the operating system to the recently release OS X 10.5.7 results in significantly better battery life. Some users say that they’re getting 4.5 to 5 hours of battery life out of 6 cell MSI Wind batteries instead of the 3 hours and 45 minutes they used to get.

Odds are this is the result of overall performance enhancements and bug fixes in the latest version of the Mac operating system. But it is also possible that it’s not a coincidence. What if Apple is not only working on a mini-notebook or tablet, but one that uses the same Intel Atom processor as most existing netbooks. Wouldn’t the company try to optimize its operating system to play well with this low power chip?

I mean, that’s probably not what’s going on here, but it’s fun to speculate isn’t it? Why don’t you give it a try in the comments.

via Gizmodo