You know those ugly battery cases that used to be all the rage? The ones with the giant chins and terrible MicroUSB connectors that sat offset from the charger?
Credit for first image to Jason Wiltjer
But hey, it was worth it for the additional battery life... or something. The problem was that it was another $60 every time you got a new phone. What if you could swap out a battery module into a cheap plastic case every time you upgraded?
That was all that that Aharon Elgrissy needed to start Hello Zee. One patent later...
Now you may notice something about that lightning connector...
It wouldn't exactly be Apple-approved, if it were to exist at all... But we'll burn that bridge when we get to it, or however the saying goes.
Let's focus on that module.
What if the battery module did more than just battery? What else can we stuff into there? Let's throw everything at the wall, and see what sticks.
- what if it was external storage? done.
- what if it added Qi wireless charging? done.
- what if it was an extra camera flash? done.
- what about 6? done.
Yes, 6 extra LEDs for your hardcore photo-taking... I guess. Oh, and they can light up in time with music, so that's fun. All at once, not in a pattern though 🙁.
Now you may look at the core and say... there's no way that you charge plugged into that back port... right?
Right?
Oh my god.
It's so bad that it even stands up like that...
Okay fine, so let's say you either put up with the terrible port position or only charge wirelessly... what happened to that cable issue from earlier?
Well that doesn't exactly look thin... so I guess they added a chin, just like Mophie...
No. It's worse. Far worse.
...what in the fuckin hell.
Who saw this and said "yes this is the good and correct option".
The entire industry had a chin, but you chose violence, and tried to market it as a "convenient way to attach a chain".
So... who bought this thing? Well I did, for some reason. I liked it, too! But that cable ended up dying, making it useless. I managed to grab a replacement before the company went under (spoiler alert) and that one died out too. Another issue was that with the iPhone X, the camera went vertical, leaving not enough room for the core.
Somehow they managed to make not only the worst cable, but the best one too! The microUSB cable in the box is so good, that it is still my favorite microUSB cable.
Written along the cable (and the back of the case!) is "Hello Zee, Hello Future", so I get a little reminder of the company every time I need a microUSB cable.
So... how do you use the storage and light? Well the app requires a login and the servers are dead, so I can't exactly show you.
But you pretty much just had to use their terrible UI to transfer photos and videos, as well as music, and you couldn't use them in other apps until you transferred them back. So you either had to view/listen to them in the Zee Core app, or swap the files back and forth.
Well I guess this is the story of a clearly ambitious and promising company that got taken out by a couple poor design decisions, and some very inconvenient camera placement on the iPhone X.
Oh my god they made the cases for iPad too???
Also I randomly found this within the app files for some reason.
