Some remote controls, like the Apple TV 4K remote, need to be charged using a cable. But most get their power from a pair of AAA batteries and while they might last a good long while it's an inevitibility that they'll eventually need to be replaced. Unless you have this new remote from TW Electronics.Announced as part of the CES 2023 shennanighans yesterday, the new Google TV remote is designed to never need batteries and never need to be charged. At least, it won't need to be charged manually.That's because the battery will be automatically cahrged using the power of light. That doesn't mean that you need to leave this thing in the garden to charge, either - TW Electronics says that the new Google TV controller will be charged using indoor light, which is pretty handy.

That's because it'll be built using a solar panel built by Swedish outfit Exeger, Android Authority reports. But perhaps even more importantly for owners of Google TV kit, the button layout of this controller is the same as the one that they've already been using. No need to re-learn that muscle memory here, folks.

But as is so often the case with products announced as part of the annual CES fun, there's a catch. The announcement tweet embedded above doesn't include one rather vital but of information - when the new controller will be available for anyone to actually buy.

Right now, TW Electronics isn't saying when the controller will be available which means that it's difficult to get too excited about it. The history of CES is littered with accessories and devices that never actually went on sale or took years to do it. We can only hope that this controller doesn't fall into that category.