Your iPhone may not be all that useful in the face of a mugger, but YellowJacket hopes to change that. The company already sells the world’s first stun-gun iPhone case for the iPhone 4 and 4s for $99. Now it's launching the iPhone 5 and 5s version for $149. We received an up-close and electrifying demonstration of the Yellow Jacket at CES 2014, and managed to avoid getting stung in the process.
The soft plastic Yellow Jacket looks like any rugged iPhone case at first glance, until you uncover the Taser at the top. The case sports a safety on the side to stop you from stunning a friend by accident, and there’s a cap to keep the stun-gun portion concealed. We found the Yellow Jacket comfy to hold, though the company didn't let press spend much time carrying the cases in fear of an all-out shock war on the showroom floor.
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A Yellow Jacket representative first demonstrated the iPhone 4 model, which deployed a bright bolt of electricity when the trigger was pulled. This version of the Yellow Jacket is a one-piece accessory, while the newly-unveiled iPhone 5 and 5s version has an internal shell that can pop out of the stun-gun exterior for when you don’t feel the need to have the Taser on you.
The Yellow Jacket introduces an innovative concept for smartphone cases, especially when many users have their devices unconcealed in public for most of the day. However, seeing as stun guns are illegal in several locations, including our home town of New York, we don’t see ourselves getting the chance to use one any time soon.
