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Amazon Moves "Buy Now" Into the Physical World, With the Dash Button
Zothecula writes The Amazon Dash Button is a small device that you can stick to walls or a variety of household appliances. Each button is associated with a certain brand or product, and when you set it up (via smartphone) you associate the button with a specific size or quantity (like, say, two 12-packs of Starbucks K-cups or one 2-pack of 50 oz. Tide detergent) and shipping speed. When you start to get low on said product, mash the button and Amazon takes care of the rest.
For tp!!!!
This one of those ideas perfectly balanced on the razor's edge between believability and absurdity that make the reader question whether it just might possibly be true.
(Pity it's April 2nd, which just means that somebody at Amazon is merely bonkers.)
These have no reason to exist. They will just create more electronic wastes, not to mention the manufacturing cost.
A simple app for smartphones would've done the same thing, and more.
But that's not the same. When you're reaching for the detergent and notice that it's almost empty, you may not have your smartphone with you, and even if you do, you probably don't want to stop and launch the app so you can order more detergent, you'll just try to remember to order it next time you're at your computer. Though if you had a button right there on the cabinet, then you'd probably hit it right while you have the empty detergent bottle in your hand.
Admittedly this seems like unnecessary overkill, but it is definitely difference than a smartphone app and I can see why some might find it useful.
They will just create more electronic wastes, not to mention the manufacturing cost
Many people would say the same about smartphones and their (mostly) 2 year obsolescence schedule.
The only problem is, most of this stuff is cheaper at Costco — when they are having a sale, one can load-up until next year's sale of the same commodity.
But this seems like it would be darn convenient. So much so, I'm prepared to revisit the price difference. Everyone here is busy and if a single button-press can really replace a trip to the store, it just might be worth it...
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Corporate America has done worse. Remember the LCD animated magazine?
Sorry, we live in a post-industrial non-productive economy. If you want to perpetuate the myth of the 40 hour workweek and employment for the majority of people, you have to keep coming up with ever more absurd nonsense to keep money moving around.
We could just sit happily on our monumental resources and technology and create a leisure society for all, instead we send people to school longer and longer for dwindling returns.
Our choice, we made it, we can't complain about the consequences.
Step 2: Add a child-resistant packaging for the button, so your 2-year-old doesn't order you fifty jugs of Tide.
This + Amazon Wine + Amazon Drones = WIN
Sorry, i've learned my lesson pushing random red buttons. I still argue that a button that will vaporize 1/3rd of a planet from the core out SHOULD have had better protection from people like me, or at least a label with a warning. FINE, a label with a warning in MY language!
Seriously, though, isn't this taking "lazy" to a whole new level? Or have we been at that level, and no one mentioned it to me?
Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
This + Amazon Toilet Paper + Drones = even MORE WIN
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I don't buy it. April 1 joke, right?
Table-ized A.I.
The could make one to magnet onto the fridge with a color e-ink display and a watch crown to cycle through the items in your purchase history & find the one whose last can you just opened. If they'd build a set of gps-like transmitters that reside in 6-way receptacle adapters (providing mapping capability for your vacuum) they could prioritize the items appearing in the dash display based on the location of the thing in your house.
It's still April 1st somewhere in the Pacific.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
No, we're still on April 1st in California. They're just messing around with the date.
I know not everyone is in California, but this is the first time I'm seeing a date and time on Slashdot that's not using the local time of my browser.
No, but I remember the Cue Cat. No less than $185 million was invested in this ridiculous venture. I could never figure out how anyone ever thought this was a good idea, even before the benefit of hindsight. Not only ridiculously impractical, but privacy-invading and prone to security issues? Woot!
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
or you might select an app other than Amazon to buy it
or you might notice it's a couple bucks more than the local store
or you might forget about the app and buy it on your next trip to the grocery store
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
I don't like Amazon as a company. I don't like the way they deal with vendors. I really don't like the way they deal with their own employees, down to the recent non-complete agreements for warehouse laborers! As a consumer, I love Amazon, though I do try to not support them.
Why do I want this button?
We keep paper towels and toilet paper in the garage. When we're getting down to one (or no!) rolls left, either I or my wife will say "Oh, we only have one more roll of paper tolls left--let's make sure to get more next time we go to the store." Of course, sometimes that doesn't happen. Sometimes we forget to add paper towels to the list. Sometimes our beloved family cat will decide to spray rancid piss down the hallway, and we exceed our EPTU (estimated paper towel usage). If we had a button in the garage next to our paper towels, and every time we were getting remotely low we just tapped a button and didn't think about it again...that's brilliant.
I would normally never buy this kind of product from Amazon as the local store prices are _always_ better (especially if you keep an eye out for coupons, sales, etc--but even without that). The button might change my mind.
This is seriously one of those ideas that's so simple and yet so brilliant at the same time.
The only problem is, most of this stuff is cheaper at Costco — when they are having a sale, one can load-up until next year's sale of the same commodity.
But this seems like it would be darn convenient. So much so, I'm prepared to revisit the price difference. Everyone here is busy and if a single button-press can really replace a trip to the store, it just might be worth it...
Not everyone has room for costco's usual super-sized product packages, I really have no room to store a 6 pack of ketchup, #10 cans of corn, or a 24 pack of paper towels, and many items would expire before I can use them. While I might save money by buying in bulk, without unlimited storage space, I appreciate using Amazon for just-in-time delivery even if I spend a little more money. Plus, as you say, there's the convenience factor -- going to Costco ends up taking at least a few hours from start to finish.
I regularly order 50lb bags of rice, jugs of juice, fruit 10lbs, all using my phone and the delivery person happily hefts it up the walkway to my door, along with a bevy of other items. I don't even have to talk to the guy - he leaves it in my safebox behind my side yard.
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
Have they got over the epileptic fit of articles yesterday, by someone who took April fools far too seriously? You know, the jokes on you if you have it up after 12.00pm midday, so err.. yeah.. fail on all counts.
for one particular, favourite whore ? Or for a BMW Z-3 ?
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
Should you happen to misplace your weighted companion cube, you can request a replacement with any one of these conveniently located buttons.
I can't see why I - or anyone else - would want this. So what exactly do I gain from getting one or more of these?
It's not hard to imagine use cases. Take, for instance, an 88-year-old senior who is trying to age in place but for whom a trip to the store isn't a trivial undertaking, and who has no interest in a smartphone (and sure isn't going to see a 4" HD screen).
Boom - more detergent shows up the day after tomorrow. Iterate through typical consumables - the UI is damn simple and the button is big enough for somebody with Parkinson's to manage. That's worth the effort for the responsible child to set up.
Now take a new mom who's half-covered in crap and hasn't slept all night. Only 10 diapers left. Boom - nap time.
I'm assuming there's a reasonable "boom" sound effect here. How much are ringtones?
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
It seems to be limited to certain products. If I could pick the product myself, I'd like this. For instance I always forget to order water softener salt until it's too late for instance - would be nice to just stick this on the water so I can press as I'm loading the last of the salt in. As far as problems go it's true that world poverty is probably the greater issue facing humanity, but it's equally true that this is a nice bit of fluff that if works as advertised could well be handy.
The "button" connects to a local wifi and all it does is send a serial number to Amazon. The user just associates that number with a standing order. When the button is pressed the standing order is processed and the item or items are shipped.
It is pretty cool in it's simplicity.
To those who call this lazy, I prefer to call it efficient with my time. Why do you drive a car? Are you just too lazy to walk? This is actually very good for people with ADD. We can't seem to remember to do things from one minute to the next. Oh right, I need creamer tomorrow. Hope I remember.
I know exactly what would happen in my case. I'd forget I'd pushed the button and end up deluged with toilet paper.
wouldn't it just be cheaper to, uhmm, get rid of the cat?
(I bet there's an app for that, too)
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
wait - I think I finally understand this IoT thing.
its really the Internet of Towels.
(to wipe up after pussy).
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
No, but I remember the Cue Cat. No less than $185 million was invested in this ridiculous venture. I could never figure out how anyone ever thought this was a good idea, even before the benefit of hindsight. Not only ridiculously impractical, but privacy-invading and prone to security issues? Woot!
Isn't the concept behind that CueCat thing basically the same as what is behind QR codes these days?
Admit nothing. Deny Everything. Make Counter-accusations.
Except that QR codes are read by a device that can to other thing as well. The CueCat was a one function device.
I know it's a joke, but this does pretty much sum up the 'internet of things'.
* Sigh *
Why use the button? Are you too lazy to use a smartphone app?
Why use a smartphone app? Are you too lazy to use a website on a desktop?
Why use a website? Are you too lazy to pick up a phone and call?
Why pick up a phone and call? Are you too lazy to write an order and mail it?
Why write and order and mail it? Are you too lazy to go out to a store and get it yourself?
Why go to a store? Are you too lazy to make it yourself?
What one person calls lazy is what another person calls efficient. Everyone is not like you. Stop judging other people based on your own experiences. Their's have been different.
These have no reason to exist.
Yes they do. They push people into buying the expense brands that are willing to pay Amazon for the privilege of having their own buttons. They also mean you'll have visible ads for particular brands in your house when friends visit.
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
QR codes are actually a general purpose matrix barcode, not just used for storing URLs, of course. They were originally designed by Japanese industry for inventory management.
That aside, yeah, it was like mobile tagging with QR codes, except the Cue Cat reader (unlike a smartphone) was physical device attached to your PC, which in turn had to run proprietary software that was intended to launch a website when you scanned a code. It was just a horribly clunky system that few people would be interested in taking the time to actually use.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
I never used it for it's intended purpose but I found the cuecat (along with a 50 line perl script) to be a great help in cataloging all my books years back.
Democracy is a sheep and two wolves deciding what to have for lunch. Freedom is a well armed sheep contesting the issue
It is still just a bar code reader. What you do with the code after you get it is up to you. Most QR codes are scanned by smart phones that can also do things completely unrelated to QR codes like make phone calls. QR codes are useful because you probably already have the device to read them. Carrying a separate device to read QR codes would not be as popular.
It solves the problem of Amazon not being on the front page of news sites for a couple of days.
Or it could just be a story from April 1 2012. This is Slashdot after all.
No app, but amazon does sell rocks and burlap sacks.
Or it could be a real product: https://www.amazon.com/oc/dash-button
Frequently Bought Together:
Molly-Guard child resistant enclosure: $3.95
When someone says, "Any fool can see
I can just imagine the young child repeatedly mashing the button because it is such a tempting thing to do.
"Don't push the Red Button"
"Don't push the Red Button"
"Don't push the Red Button"
"Don't push the Red Button"
oops
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
These have no reason to exist. They will just create more electronic wastes, not to mention the manufacturing cost. A simple app for smartphones would've done the same thing, and more.
But that's not the same. When you're reaching for the detergent and notice that it's almost empty, you may not have your smartphone with you, and even if you do, you probably don't want to stop and launch the app so you can order more detergent, you'll just try to remember to order it next time you're at your computer. Though if you had a button right there on the cabinet, then you'd probably hit it right while you have the empty detergent bottle in your hand.
Admittedly this seems like unnecessary overkill, but it is definitely difference than a smartphone app and I can see why some might find it useful.
They will just create more electronic wastes, not to mention the manufacturing cost
Many people would say the same about smartphones and their (mostly) 2 year obsolescence schedule.
If you are like me, you'd need a rack of these things in the shower. That seems to be the only place I think of certain tasks... always forgotten by the time I get out.
The only problem is, most of this stuff is cheaper at Costco — when they are having a sale, one can load-up until next year's sale of the same commodity.
Is it truly cheaper at Costco once you factor in all the costs? Are you accounting for your time, gasoline, wear on your car, opportunity cost, membership fees, etc. Are you accounting for the fact that many people don't live conveniently close to a Costco (I'm one of them)? Are you accounting for the fact that many people don't have the storage space or vehicle capacity to transport a pallet of toilet paper to their house? What about those people who don't own a car like many in NYC?
My point is that there is no one size fits all economic answer. Costco is a great solution for many people. I could see these button things working well for a different group of people, particularly urbanites where the "local" Costco might be 30 miles away. If I lived in Manhattan and didn't have a car like a lot of people there Costco is a pretty terrible solution.
Amazon's deliveries need to be a lot more expensive to justify my spending over an hour of the precious personal time on errands per week.
I shop a ton at Amazon but are you seriously going to claim that your week is SO packed that you don't even have 1 hour to spend grocery shopping? Really? You'd have to be unbelievably busy or ill for me to believe that.
BTW, I'm a cost accountant professionally. Using your hourly billing rate as an opportunity cost only works if you would actually forgo that income if you spent that time doing something other than earning wages. Since most people shop outside of work hours there is no lost wages and so the opportunity cost is much smaller.
I for one was lazy decades before I got my first cellular (and not so smart) phone.
So you admit your are lazy rather than otherwise occupied. Got it.
I don't like Amazon as a company. I don't like the way they deal with vendors. I really don't like the way they deal with their own employees, down to the recent non-complete agreements for warehouse laborers! As a consumer, I love Amazon, though I do try to not support them.
You sound a little conflicted. If you don't like them then don't do business with them. Nobody will be offended I promise.
Why do I want this button?
Odds are you don't. I can see use cases where this sort of thing might make sense but for most people I don't really see it being practical. I already go to the grocery store about once a week so the convenience value of this button is pretty minimal for me. However I could see it making sense for a busy person who lives somewhere like NYC where getting to the local Costco isn't exactly a sensible use of their time. If you live someplace you don't have a car, or if you aren't mobile, having stuff delivered to you starts to make a lot of sense.
you may not have your smartphone with you
C'mon, it's the 21st century, no one lives like that anymore, do they?
No. It's not more efficient. Picking, boxing, and shipping a single bottle of detergent hundreds of miles to your house because you are too lazy to walk two aisles over to the detergent aisle on your regular trip to the grocery store is a waste of the world's resources and generates extra CO2.
So instead the bottle gets picked, palletized and shipped to a resource intensive grocery store near me where I have to drive a several thousand pound vehicle and waste an hour of my time to go get it. There is nothing eco-friendly about me driving to the grocery store. Not that having it delivered is eco-friendly either but the marginal difference in resources between the two is fairly minimal. Not zero but not huge.
Stop assuming everyone goes to the grocery store on a regular basis. Your lifestyle is not the same as everyone else's. No, this button thing doesn't make much sense for most of us (myself included) but there are people who it could make a lot of sense for. Someone who is housebound. Someone who lives in a dense urban area without a car. Someone who prefers a brand not carried by their local stores. Etc. It will make sense for some folks without the word lazy being involved at all. If you were handicapped you might find this sort of service to be a godsend.
It's almost like Amazon thought this out or something.
I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
to WallE as people become fatter and fatter from less physical activity. Why bother going outside when one can lie on their floaty chair and press a button?
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
I hope they don't ever make one of these for Girl Scout cookies. I'll be hundreds of pounds overweight in no time.
Instead of "running out" of something, use the backup system. It's useful for things like laundry detergent, coffee, water filter, toilet paper, etc.
Always have two of everything. One that you're currently using, the other is the backup. When you finish the one you're using and open the backup, it's time to buy another one. That leaves you plenty of time to do so, usually at least a week depending on the item. Put it on your groceries list.
No need for such widgets or online ordering.
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
A large parcentage of the population follows the same pattern day in and day out. Amazon already has a service available for such a demographic, it's called their replenishment service.
I don't understand where this button makes sense when these 2 services overlap for this 'daily pattern' demographic. Maybe some people just like pushing buttons? I guess this would be great for the SJW and Gamergate crowds.
You want each and every container of every product to have built-in detectors and wireless hardware? Do you not know about the problems of electronic waste?
Your idea would work and be better if Amazon had made their Dash hardware into a weighing scale instead of a tiny key fob. Each product has a known weight when full and a known weight when empty. Obviously put the ordering on a timer and put some logic into it: did the person just take some of the product? Has the container been put back on the scale for at least an hour? Is the product weight now low enough to order?
Maybe Amazon did try the weighing scale idea but decided against it because the cost was too high. Key fobs are smaller, lower cost and fit in more places with their backed adhesive.
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So if they don't have Prime, they'll incur a shipping charge that's so much higher than if they combined their orders, it won't be worth it. If they do have Prime, they'll cost Amazon needless money in shipping by ordering things daily and one piece at a time. Sounds like a great plan. Oh and what if their dog or kids press the button?
I think of it as putting a value on my time.
There is a value on your time. But it is demonstrably not your hourly rate on your job unless you are actually taking time away from your job. The rate is something different.
On a salary, the money keeps rolling in on a regular basis. If I squander a bit of it, I'll get more with the next paycheck. If I squander my time, it's gone for ever.
You haven't thought through the full implications of that statement. Earning a paycheck is essentially trading time for money. If you squander the money you earned, the time you spent earning it is wasted at the same time. The only difference is that the waste is time shifted but it is still wasted time that you will never, ever recover.
Except that Amazon was sending emails and showing it on their web site on 31 March.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
TFA states that the button-based orders are disabled after the first one, until the first order arrives. You're not going to have a child go manic on this thing, and end up with a pallet of Tide.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
Amazon does ridiculous stuff like this regularly. Free shipping for Prime members was a crazy idea when it was first introduced. Now several companies have copied their prime model. I don't think these buttons are the end-game. They may be a wedge/marketing gimic that gets people to start buying household products from Amazon. I buy laundry detergent locally because I usually don't think about it until I'm almost out. Having a button staring me in the face reminds me 1) that Amazon sells it, and 2) that I might want to think about it a few days in advance on needing it. Once I get that habit, it won't be a stretch to get rid of the buttons and simply have a phone app that lets me easily order non-perishables.
Alternately, Amazon is hoping the price for these buttons becomes negligible as "Internet of Things" chips ramp up. Either way, homeowners buying name brand products through Amazon without even thinking about the price, is good for Amazon.
create a leisure society for all, by sending people to school longer and longer
FTFY. Most of the people I know who are going to school for "longer and longer" have more leisure time than ever before in the history of humanity. Not all, but most.
And how many people will hit it by accident?
Hitting the button sends an alert to your phone, and you can cancel if it was placed mistakenly.
Just keeps getting handier and handier. I probably have 50 different things in my refrigerator, so let's say 25 of them I will want buttons for. Seems like a pretty good prank to hit all 25 of them, have me get 25 messages to verify, and make for a major PITA.
Improvements are supposed to be improvements, not a convoluted clusterfsck. Seriously it's harder to make a list, then order online or just go to the grocery store?
Besides, were will Grandma put her refrigerator magnets now?
It's a perfectly fine idea, the problems you cited are easy to address (and indeed, have been addressed).
Its a solution in search of a problem, and complicates a simple process.
Its like those TV commercials where a person is getting all frustrated performing some simple task, like cooking an egg, but fear not! here is some superduper miracle product to the rescue. Full of hinges and parts, a PITA to wash, and only has one use. Only $19.95 plus shipping and handling.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
you may not have your smartphone with you
C'mon, it's the 21st century, no one lives like that anymore, do they?
People under 30 have those things welded to their hands. Problem is, they are all living at home, and mommy and daddy pay for the groceries.
Its a millennial thing.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
you may not have your smartphone with you
C'mon, it's the 21st century, no one lives like that anymore, do they?
I can't tell whether you're kidding, but I'll bite. Lots of people aren't chained to a smartphone 24/7. I know quite a few people who only have their phones on their persons when they're out of the house. I usually put my phone in airplane mode and plug it into the charger when I get home from work; it doesn't wake up until I leave for work the next morning. It's not unusual for the phone to go untouched from Friday night until Monday morning unless I go someplace where it might be handy to have it with me.
Or if not noon, at least by the time you are 12.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
The model is wrong. From the summary it looks like the button will associate with given set of branded products being configurable only in size and quantity. That is fail for me, because my brand is always best price for acceptable quality, which varies. But if and when these buttons become generic and completely configurable, perhaps making use of some sort of rule writing mechanism, to where I can point it intellegently to anything in the Amazon marketplace, then I've found my first use for the now only fantastic internet of things. When you make tools for people to use to make their life easier or better, that's a win. If you make a tool to tie people to your brand (Fire Phone), branded button, that's fail.
I present... the Easy Button from Staples. let the lawsuits begin.
seriously... think about this... you are doing laundry. you set the 3-year-old inside the washer basket because it keeps the little whirlwind out of the way, she/he cannot fall and get hurt, and besides, you know how messy kids get with chocolate. bored kid looks around, up and down, and hey! -- looky! -- there's a little orange button on the wall that looks like a toy. whack-whack-whack-whack for several minutes until you look up.
how are you going to return three semi loads of Tide Pods?
BAD idea.
There's a really helpful document linked in the summary that addresses this
Once connected, a single press automatically places your order. Amazon sends an order alert to your phone, so it's easy to cancel if you change your mind. Unless you elect otherwise, Dash Button responds only to your first press until your order is delivered.
I'm not saying this is a good idea, but your analogy is stupid, and not at all the reason for why exactly this might be a bad idea.
CLI paste? paste.pr0.tips!
...and by analogy I mean proposed scenario :).
CLI paste? paste.pr0.tips!
Apparently (as usual) no one bothers to read TFA:
"What about accidental orders? Unless you set it up to do otherwise, Amazon only registers your first press of the button until your order is delivered. The company will also send you a confirmation alert via smartphone, giving you a chance to cancel any mistaken orders. Households with young children (or perhaps rascally teenagers) will want to be careful with this, or risk making canceling orders a regular routine."
So I suppose your scenario is possible, but only if you specifically override the default settings.
Now if only the delivery worked better. At my house, they normally don't even ring, and leave all the packages at a small store nearby, where you have to pick them up at their not-so-long business hours. So much for the convenience factor.
The "Buy Now with One Click" sucks bad enough on a desktop or laptop. It's even worse on Android devices. I actually read part of the Amazon appstore terms of service and it states that by using their appstore, you agree to this "one click" BS and that all sales are final. Way too easy to buy an app you didn't intend to purchase.
Now they're going to have a physical button that can buy things if you knock it on the floor or the cat steps on it? I can just imagine a 2 year old playing with this thing and beating on it like a bongo drum.
BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY
This will be great, until the day you discover your toddler has been repeatedly mashing the Dash button while you weren't looking. :-)
Proverbs 21:19
When we're getting down to one (or no!) rolls left, either I or my wife will say "Oh, we only have one more roll of paper tolls left--let's make sure to get more next time we go to the store." Of course, sometimes that doesn't happen. Sometimes we forget to add paper towels to the list.
Keep your list on your phone. Ours is a shared Dropbox file - if I notice we are low on paper towels, I just add it right then. No harder than pushing a button, really (especially if you've got five or ten buttons to keep straight).
#DeleteChrome
The Dash button might be useful in the office or the enterprise, especially if it could be configured to send the order requests to purchasing:
1: You are running out of tape media, and it is time for a quarterly offsite in a few weeks. Mash the button, get the tapes in a few days, continue on.
2: The office supply cabinet is low on pens. Mash the button for the style of pens that is needed, go on one's day.
3: Paper is low. Hit the button by the copier.
I can see a number of uses for this device, more than just ordering bathroom supplies for home.
You mean you read the article?
Turn in your membership at the door please.
It's not hard to imagine use cases. Take, for instance, an 88-year-old senior who is trying to age in place but for whom a trip to the store isn't a trivial undertaking, and who has no interest in a smartphone (and sure isn't going to see a 4" HD screen).
Unfortunately, he will not be able to use this product because it requires a smartphone.
I can't blame him for not wanting to buy things via smartphone. I sure as heck would never buy anything using my smartphone, or even configure it so that I (or anyone who steals it from me or finds it laying around) could.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
No way would this work in our house, kids are 6 and 22 months.
I've already found items waiting for me in my Amazon cart after my daughter has played with apps like the Easy Bake Oven - which is a cute app, but includes links to add related supplies to your shopping cart...
"There are people who do not love their fellow human being, and I _hate_ people like that!" - Tom Lehrer
Amazon lets you cancel orders while they're being processed. You'll surely get an e-mail confirming the order and price shortly after pressing the button.
Have gnu, will travel.
That could be a cool app- something where you could take a picture of the UPC label and it would scan a list of stores for price and availability. I would be surprised if it doesn't already exist.
love is just extroverted narcissism
I was more thinking what happens when your pets step on it...
And how many people will hit it by accident?
Hitting the button sends an alert to your phone, and you can cancel if it was placed mistakenly.
Just keeps getting handier and handier. I probably have 50 different things in my refrigerator, so let's say 25 of them I will want buttons for.
Gee, it's almost as if sticking 25 of these on your refrigerator for products you use often is not the use-case Amazon had in mind. I wonder if that's why they are only handing out up to 3 free buttons per customer.
Seems like a pretty good prank to hit all 25 of them, have me get 25 messages to verify, and make for a major PITA.
Maybe you should be more choosey about who you let into your house and/or you should set boundaries for your children so they don't order products as a "prank"?
Improvements are supposed to be improvements, not a convoluted clusterfsck. Seriously it's harder to make a list, then order online or just go to the grocery store?
Well, yes? That's kind of the entire point of this product -- convenience. I don't keep my laundry detergent in the refrigerator, it's down in the basement next to the laundry machines, so by the time I come back upstairs after noticing the laundry is done, I may not remember to add it to the list or order it online.
It's a perfectly fine idea, the problems you cited are easy to address (and indeed, have been addressed).
Its a solution in search of a problem, and complicates a simple process.
I'm not sure how a single button press complicates the process - you notice that laundry detergent (or diapers or whatever) is low and you press a button and a few days later, the product arrives. You do get an alert on your phone so you can cancel if you want to, but you don't have to respond to it, if you don't cancel the order then it's placed.
Which part of that is complicated?
Its like those TV commercials where a person is getting all frustrated performing some simple task, like cooking an egg, but fear not! here is some superduper miracle product to the rescue. Full of hinges and parts, a PITA to wash, and only has one use. Only $19.95 plus shipping and handling.
But this product is free (for up to 3 buttons), and since anyone using it is likely already buying from Amazon, there's really no added cost to them.
Some of the Pacific was just hours from April 3 when this story was posted.
Learn to love Alaska
I can't tell whether you're kidding
I'm not sure, either anymore... I carry my cell phone when I leave the apartment, but certainly not inside, where it just stays on my desk. But my wife, on the other hand, carries hers from room to room to room...
Other people I know won't ever let theirs out of arm's reach for fear of missing something....
No doubt. Buy local, fsck Amazon!
Yes, because your local Wal-Mart is so supportive of local business. I'm sure the dozen or two they shut down when they moved into town hardly felt the financial impact.
Seriously, where the hell do you think people are going to go to find the next best deal on price..
To me, the interesting part of this is that the buttons for the items are tied to a specific item from a specific brand (yes, you can choose the quantity, but that's it). So Amazon not only uses this to tie you into to buying from them, but to buying a specific brand of a specific item. For example, now when you think "I need to buy detergent," and you use the button, you buy Tide from Amazon. Not Gain, not All, not any other brand. Just that one brand. And if you elect to continue using the button to avoid the hassle and choice, you're locked in to your first brand selection (assuming there are competing brands with buttons). You don't even see the competing products on the shelf or the website anymore.
It's brilliant. I'm surprised they have such a limited number of partners in this venture so far as these pre-configured buttons rob you of two choices.
Yeah, on more than one occasion, I've tried to cancel an order from amazon after just a few seconds had passed. It's always too late to cancel since the item is miraculously already on the way...
Most linux users don't know this, but the man pages were named after Chuck Norris. Chuck Norris fsck'ing hates noobs!
Waterproof tablet. It also has the bonus of some entertainment.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
I don't know about that, I will have to wait until they select me, but I am guessing you don't need to buy Tide laundry detergent (or pods, or whatever) with the tide button. There was some indication that you select what each button does.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
I wonder if that's why they are only handing out up to 3 free buttons per customer.
You actually use that to refute me?
What specific three items would I want to choose out of my refrigerator, and why on earth wouldn't I just pick them up when I go shopping for the other things that Amazon won't pick up for me?
3 button/item limit merely moves this idea from moronic to imbecilic.
Maybe you should be more choosey about who you let into your house and/or you should set boundaries for your children so they don't order products as a "prank"?
Something tells me you either don't have chilrdren, or you keep them in a cage and don't allow them to have friends. Or you are the first parent ever to have children who have never ever done anything wrong.
Well, yes? That's kind of the entire point of this product -- convenience. I don't keep my laundry detergent in the refrigerator, it's down in the basement next to the laundry machines, so by the time I come back upstairs after noticing the laundry is done, I may not remember to add it to the list or order it online.
Are you the woman they use on all the first world problems meme, who cries because she wants to change the TV channel but the remote is across the room?
It's so hard being a person who hasn't been able to remember the laundry detergent because its the whole goddamned way in the basement, where you never ever go. Except maybe to wash the clothes. I think I should apologize, because if you are so handicapped that you cannot remember to buy laundry detergent by looking at the laundry detergent box or bottle, and it is such an imposition to go to the basement, maybe there is something wrong that I shouldn't pick on you about.
Perhaps if they made a sensor that you put in the laundry detergent bottle to sense the level, and contact Amazon, then you wouldn't have to even think about your laundry detergent ever again?
I'm not sure how a single button press complicates the process - you notice that laundry detergent (or diapers or whatever) is low and you press a button and a few days later, the product arrives. You do get an alert on your phone so you can cancel if you want to, but you don't have to respond to it, if you don't cancel the order then it's placed.
Which part of that is complicated?
As opposed to seeing the laundry detergent is low, and picking some up the next time you are in the store? If for osome reason you have to use your phone, you can record a note to yourself. All of this especially if you are restricted to only three items.
But this product is free (for up to 3 buttons), and since anyone using it is likely already buying from Amazon, there's really no added cost to them.
Look, if you really want to use this, and it makes you feel High tech, bdcause you are now getting your laundry detergent and two other items shipped directy to you from Amazon, the I suppose you can have at it. I doubt this would add one moment of simplicity to anyone's lives that I know of.
Now get to work constructing that drone port for your laundry detergent deliveries.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Staples creates Easy Button for marketing purposes, Amazon makes it actually do something in real life.
Amazon has an app that does that ;-) Of course it only tells you Amazon's price...
is a waste of the world's resources and generates extra CO2.
Now you are judging someone based on your definition of efficient.
http://www.mysupermarket.com/ offers price comparison in the USA and UK (I don't know if the app allows UPC scans). It does not check availability which would be next to impossible in a national supermarket.
Red Laser. It's been around for years.
I don't get it.. so you have a button for laundry detergent. What if you run out of one of the other hundreds of things that house holds regularly run out of? I'm not sure if there is one single product in my house I find that important over the others. Am I supposed to have fifty of these buttons around my house?
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
You might be in the minority that decides to not buy toilet paper because the price went up.
There's a lot of Amazon warehouses now, and Amazon is smart enough to keep items in stock nearby people that have the buttons for the items. Very few people are going to have to have these shipped hundreds of miles.
And for me this would be more convenient for forgetfulness (I walk out of the laundry room, that whole walking-through-doors-makes-you-forget thing kicks in, and I forget to put laundry detergent on the grocery list) and back issues (I tend to buy in bulk, but I have back issues, and can't actually lift a lot of the things myself; buying things from Amazon means I don't have to drive 45 minutes in the opposite direction of the store to pick up my brother to help me, and then take him home). So for me this reduces CO2, because I'm not making an extra trip to the grocery store nor two extra to my brother's house.