On Tuesday Apple released an unexpected new accessory, a battery charger. The new charger comes with six rechargeable batteries and costs $29. The recharger is designed in the style of Apple’s other power adapters and works with any international adapters or extender cables that you may have already purchased for those other power adapters.

The new accessory is competitively priced when compared to other battery chargers and happens to draw ten times less energy during standby than the industry average.

I don’t have a whole lot of gadgets that use AA batteries — most of my devices feature built in rechargeable batteries. However, my household recently purchased a Nintendo Wii and with it a set of rechargeable batteries from Energizer for all those Wii remotes. It’s a little annoying that Apple decided to release this just a couple of weeks after I buy an ugly and much more power hungry recharger, but I guess I am happy that the Energizer battery charger that I purchased tells me how long until my batteries are fully charged. I’d still rather have purchased the Apple recharger but I’ll make do for now.

Also, why can’t any other company design batteries that look this good?