I don’t want any sort of special attention for being tased at CES. If you’re a tech blogger, being tased at CES is a tradition almost as old as CES itself.
But after missing out on being tased in 2009 due to a scheduling conflict, I very much wanted to be tased this year and I figured the Yellow Jacket iPhone 5/5s case would be an ideal opportunity to do so. It’s the follow-up to the company’s iPhone 4/4s case that came out last year.
I wasn’t sure how much juice an accessory like this would be able to put out. It has to run off a battery, after all, and it can’t be too bulky that it’s impractical to carry around. It manages to pack just shy of a million volts – nothing to sneeze at, in other words.
The short version of my experience is that getting zapped was uncomfortable, but I didn’t lose control of my bladder, which for some reason was a bigger fear of mine than the pain. I was also worried that I’d drop my phone — which I was using to record the below video — because the pain would be so bad. Neither happened. Company co-founder Sean Simone said that a couple other writers had volunteered themselves to be shocked and that one yelped with pain. That person was small and wiry, apparently, whereas I’m a thick, 6′ 4″ Scandinavian if that somehow makes a difference.
Whatever the case, I don’t feel the need to be tased by this thing for a while, if ever again. And if I was a mugger, I’d try to avoid being on the receiving end of it. It feels like being knicked by a moderately aggressive electrical shock – the kind that almost takes your breath away, but not one that’d require an ambulance ride.
The 1,800-mAh battery has enough capacity to ruin someone’s day about 50 times before needing recharged, and the case stores a small reserve so that it’ll still have enough for a zap or two even you haven’t charged it for a while.
When you’re not using the stun gun feature, the case acts as a spare battery for your iPhone, and the stun gun part can be detached from the rest of the case. Simone gave the example of carrying the whole shebang into work with you and then detaching the zapper part and leaving it in your desk drawer until you need to head back out.
It’ll be available in February for $150. Check your state for applicable laws, if you’re interested in this. It’s illegal to own in some states (see the photo of the U.S. map included in the gallery below for more info).
Product Page [Yellow Jacket]
