You should have done that before this story.
The only thing that makes the Apple batteries and charger worth more than a regular charger and batteries is the inclusion of the Jobs' Reality Distortion Field in every packet.
Or that they draw 10x less energy than the industry standard. But that's inconsistent with us raging against the negative publicity and crying out how Stevie over-priced them but we bought them anyway, so we'll just ignore innovation to soothe our egos.
I'm sure I'll get fanboy'd, but those are just the facts. This product is better than most on the market.
Exactly. The Eneloops aren't the story here: its the charger.
This is small, but stellar example of the Apple tax.
It's just a battery charger.
All of the 5 or 6 chargers I own reduce power draw to 30 or 40 milliwatts when battery is fully charged.
In my current collection, I can immedidately count 6 offhand, half of which set me back roughly $100 each.
However, I've never bothered to check to see what my chargers' power draws were when their batteries are fully charged, so I'm not about to claim that they're all the equal of the 30mW one that Apple has put out.
But what I do know is that a single LED typically takes 30mW worth of power, just on its own.
Thus, all of my 'cheapie' chargers that have a pair of these LED indicator lights will consume at least 60mW even before the actual guilty vampire circuit is included. So I know better than to even try to claim that any of my chargers are as power frugal as Apple claims for this product.
Of course, if one actually decides to run the numbers on the cost savings that Apple's "Low-Vampire" (sic) charger offers, it works out to around
35 cents per year if you keep it constantly plugged in 24/7&365.
That's a big Whoop-tee-do from an individual's perspective.
But it does makes for some good marketing in 'Green' against the rants from various Greenpeaceniks.
And realistically, what its probably best at is to promote the adoption of a 'better' rechargeable in the form of the Eneloops, regardless of whose name is on the label --- what's in it for Apple is strategic: it should result in fewer wireless devices that DOA due to batteries, which results in an improved reputation for making good stuff, & better customer satisfaction ratings.
-hh
