For a minute I thought they were getting rid of the Amazon Dash (https://fresh.amazon.com/dash/) and replacing it with the button. Looks like both products still exist.
Actually, if you look at the Hue Tap, it could perhaps work on a similar battery-less fashion. Also, if it's only transmitting (presumably via Wifi) when the button is pushed, the battery could last a fairly long time.
Hell, it could even automatically send you a new one when it detects it's battery is getting low.
Even if it's Wifi, an ESP8266 only uses 78µA in deep sleep mode, which is how these buttons will spend 99.99% of the time, so it could last more an year on a single AA battery.
i think many people are missing this key point. this isn't a "i need this right this very millisecond" its more of a "i need this later today if its early enough or tomorrow would be fine" button. which a single press of a button would wake up the device, connect to what ever configured network connection it is assigned to, send some data to an API end point, go back to sleep. that could make the button last many years.
I know a gent working on e-ink tags for grocery store shelves. They have a similar energy usage, lots of sitting idle punctuated by doing something. He's gotten 5 years on a single coin cell. I can't imagine that this would be much different.
I can see it being a very clever PR April Fools stunt. I wouldn't launch a real product like this around April 1st. However, launching a plausible but fake one will grab a lot of attention, genius.
I think the battery situation could be fine. I have a wireless mouse that boasts 3 year battery life. Since a 'dash' would only ever need to switch on and send a quick signal when pushed (which for detergent might be 50 times a year?) I imagine it could live for years (say a few hundred pushes) on a single cell.
I thought so too, but they have a real sounding TOS and quotes from executives at the various partner companies that check out. Seems like a really involved joke from a company that is quite serious about a lot of ridiculous sounding things (drone delivery for one).
It really only needs to be on for a few seconds after pressing the button to connect to wifi, and submit the order. No need for it to be in sleep mode.
That defeats the purpose of the button then. The Dash is supposed to prevent you from having to pull out your phone to order things. For example, you notice your detergent getting low, you notice the Tide Dash button right in front of you, you push the button and voila, 2 days later your next box of Tide is on your door step.
True, I guess I imagined it more as building a shopping list throughout the day/week and ordering once at the end of the day, not separate orders for every button click.
I have to say - this actually looks like a great idea for products like detergents, etc. I can see how this can work on a laundry machine. Apart from that... Where would I put the button for Bounty? Or Gillette?
This looks awful. Imagine a house full of branded buttons. Yuk. Though I'm sure my toddler would love pressing them endlessly. And all that packaging in the video, the horror.
The timing is terrible. Even if it's not a joke, they've just set themselves up for this exact comment.
Surely someone would have thought of this? Just seems like a really bad choice -- too bad for a company like Amazon to make (the timing, that is, coupled with a highly-branded product like this).
I guess, if your philosophy is "bad coverage is still coverage". But hasn't this happened with an Amazon product announcement before, and backfired? Amazon Echo comes to mind.
Not even sure that was around April fools, but my point is, bad coverage can, and has often, backfired.
That's sort of my point. Most people, with April Fools just around the corner (and already here, for some), it will still be used in mockery comments about the product, even though they know it's a real product.
You don't remember Google's April 1st announcement of Gmail, then. With gigabytes of storage, it was the perfect joke for the day and naturally carried by news outlets everywhere. And the joke continued on the next day, people realized that it wasn't actually a joke and, naturally, another media frenzy happened. Perfect example of guerrilla marketing IMO.
I don't know, looks amazing to me. Yea the branded button isn't great, but let's face it, it's going to be sitting next to the branded box/bottle anyway.
If your toddler presses it, the worst they can do is order once. It's configured to only allow one order until the item is delivered. That isn't to say your toddler still cannot do damage...
If I have to approve orders on my phone as the video suggests, I may as well create the order then and there.
Something about that video (and much of my opinion is based on the video and look of the product) makes me uneasy. It's suggesting my life is a series of purchases and top-ups, and I will be happier when I can click my branded button. Like a junkie or something. When the woman runs out of coffee it looks like she's lost a loved one. Quickly, press the button! A dystopian future, only today.
Then there are questions about when to press the button, will I have to factor delivery time and frequency of use to arrive at that answer? And will everything arrive separately? Will orders aggregate... Time will tell.
This a case of you seeing in the video what you want to see. Practically every advertisement ever created has happy people using a product. This is just a device meant to make life easier - stop overthinking it.
The difference is that while most advertisements show people happily using a product, this one shows people becoming happy merely from the act of purchasing. I also got a very uneasy "consumer junkie" vibe from it.
Of course, it's in Amazon's best economic interest to normalize and associate good feelings with the ideas of endless consumption and perpetually repeating purchasing.
The buttons are to assist with repeat purchases that we All make and that are a hassle for most of us. Detergent, toilet paper, razors, etc. It's not a matter of whether we buy these things - we all do - it's How. And for a lot of us the How is still inconvenient. This is not the perfect solution but that's the problem it seems to want to solve. It IS a problem of Remembering to purchase. How do we make it easier for people to purchase those core items they frequently run out of?
The only "junkie" vibe I got from this was the k-cups.
There should be a button for the construction of Moai and another for a family set of inflatable row boats complete with solar-powered floating kitchen (the latter delivered by amphibious drone, of course).
Clearly, as a species, we have not yet learned anything about the collapse of civilizations, and in so doing, proceed to another Tragedy of Commons at a gentle pace, because it's "not an emergency." ("Boiling frog" parable.)
Carbon emissions need to be cut drastically, and this product sets a terrible example contrary to that.
Nearly everything arrives separately already with Amazon, so not that big of a change. They seem to ship things from different warehouses half the time.
I'm not sure I understand the blowback on how and when to push the button. It's only for amazon prime members right now, so presumably you'll press the button when you need something within the next few days.
Do you wait until you are completely out of something, drop everything and drive to a store and buy it, or do you plan ahead? Same thing here without having to go to a store or write it down on a list to remember.
Come now, you can't tell me that you've gone to use $PRODUCT_NAME, only to realize that it's out/almost out. We all forget to replenish our stock once in a while.
This seems like a great product for the post-college individual, living away on their own for the first time (i.e. me). Heck, I know already that I'm low on detergent, yet I keep forgetting to go to the store to pick up more. Obviously that's my fault, but being able to LITERALLY press a button and have what I need appear at my doorstep is pretty sweet.
Though, I'm still not totally convinced that this isn't an April Fool's joke that's a day early...
> If I have to approve orders on my phone as the video suggests, I may as well create the order then and there.
The first shot of the phone is during setup. The second shot is the "an order was made" push notification, which you can use to cancel the order, but no action means it will just go through.
Hell, it's going to be sitting in my pantry, behind the paper towels. That way, when I have few rolls left, the button becomes visible and then the button gets pushed.
This happens every year. Lots of product announcements do go out around April 1 because it's the end of first quarter. Also there's lots of B.S. april fools day jokes. Hilarity ensues.
Agreed, but I would give up the micro-locations of having all these buttons throughout my house for a single panel with a half dozen or 10 buttons which are configurable for products I actually re-order pretty regularly (coffee filters, etc.)
Maybe considering their history of product announcements (Amazon Echo), they're being cautious about it this time. If it gets mocked, they'll just say "Oh it was an April Fool's joke"
It seems you're more worried about your toddler having access to the button than the detergent and bleach it's next to. Why would one be out of reach but not the other?
It's not just a physical button — it's an API. If you develop a hardware product you can apparently integrate with Dash to order supplies from the embedded controller.
Apparently, Whirlpool washing machines and Brita water filters will be using it. This doesn't help for basics like paper towels, but it would work for paper towel holders (if it's true). The IoT is here.
I'd worry about an appliance too quickly re-ordering. My printer refused to print because it thought the toner was all gone. A black marker to the sensor on the side of the toner and I'm back and printing. It's been almost a month now and still going strong.
Sure, I would love to press a button that will order things for me without seeing the price I'm going to pay ... oh wait, no, Amazon would love that, I wouldn't.
This is for people who don't care what things cost and that don't have children (children loooove pressing buttons!).
This product isn't really aimed at price-sensitive consumers, but I also don't see Amazon fucking over their customers with this. One thing I like about Amazon is that they don't play pricing games: they show you the best price in the search results, period.
When you push the button you get a push notification to your phone, which will show you the price and give you the option to cancel it, which at least gives you some way to back out if the price is hiked up.
1. It sends an alert to your phone with the price and easy cancellation. (I was actually surprised at this feature, because I cynically agreed that Amazon would use this to constantly be trying to pull one over on customers.)
2. I also believe it said that repeat clicks will not order until the previous order delivers, which should help somewhat on repeat orders.
Is there a one-click IoT purchase/event/signal patent? There must be many open, generic BLE buttons which can trigger users events, sending recurring orders directly to a vendor, without needing to go through a middleman API.
Or you'll have to set up your MyWhirlpool account on their website so that you can pair their app on your iPhone with your washing machine so you can search their incomplete list of detergent brands and add your second choice to your MyWhirlpoolBrandSelect Favorites List and then give up when Amazon seems to stop supporting that brand.
The MyWhirlpool website will also require the Silverlight plugin and you'll have to connect your washing machine with an USB cable in order to do anything.
Every once in a while the button will just randomly stop working and you'll have to go through the motions again.
More like "You'll have to call a technician to replace the machine's motherboard for $1500 dollars because the machine won't start up at all if it can't get a response from the button."
Looking at you, printer/scanner combos that won't print because the scanner is failing.
Finally, after several months of struggling against the sunk-cost fallacy that forces you to spend more time working with auto-ordering than you would simply manually ordering detergent because this washing machine cost $700 more than the non-connected model, you concede defeat and return to ordering from your phone.
Where do you see that the Whirlpool washing machine will be hard coded to use <brand name> products? The system is controlled via the smartphone app. I would think you could re-assign the product/brand associated with the button on the machine.
Or you could, oh, I don't know, do what you've always done and go buy products yourself? Or buy a separate button for your product of choice? You don't have to use the built in system.
And there is absolutely no indication it's hardcoded to use a specific product.
So you'll have to go through the improbably strenuous exercise, mustering all your strength, and .. not configure and/or push the button. Then go to the Amazon website and order a button you can configure to deliver whatever product Amazon stocks for the shockingly ruinous price of zero.
I wonder how open they are (they do say open to hobbyists). I'd really like to whip up a RaspberryPi box with buttons for things I actually reorder (instead of depending on particular brand partnerships).
Hardware is the easy bit in the whole IoT business model. The tricky bit will be persuading people that it's something they need. For this business model to work it has to solve a big enough problem that taking the time to sign up for something like this button, getting it delivered, setting it up, and actually remembering to press it when necessary is worth the effort. That's a challenging thing to market to people - especially those who live outside of the tech industry. Which is most people.
"Build it, they will come" will not work here. Because it doesn't work anywhere.
This isn't a product for consumers, this is a product for CPG companies. As a result, I imagine a lot of the cost here will be covered by the companies making the products. If Amazon covers the logistics of everything (making the buttons, managing the APIs, stocking and delivering the products, managing payments) then P&G just pays to give you a "Tide" button.
CPGs will pay a LOT for this because it makes their brands "stickier". I can't tell you what brand of paper towels I normally buy, but if I always bought them through my "Bounty" button, I would always buy Bounty paper towels instead of whatever is on sale at the store.
I doubt this button connects to Wi-Fi directly - that's too much hassle (and too power-hungry). I wonder if Amazon has some sort of Zigbee-like controller embedded in the Amazon Echo that is set up to manage low-power devices like this.
CPGs will pay a LOT for this because it makes their brands "stickier".
Exactly right, and this is exactly analogous to brands (or more often, their distributors) renting shelf space, and sometimes even hiring their own people to stock shelves.
Wi-Fi is power hungry because it's always on. It seems like these little buttons would only need to connect when you press them, then shut off right after. It's a very minor power draw when you consider the wi-fi will only run for 15 seconds every month or so. Of course, that's my read on it - maybe it does connect to the Echo.
I didn't say it would be easier. I want something a lot smaller and less visible. Plus using the beacon is optional. If I'm on the couch and want to place aa couple quick refills...
The most interesting part of this is the "Dash Replenishment Service" linked at the bottom of the page. Looks like they're building APIs to insert the service back-end into appliances - they give an example of a coffee maker that automatically orders beans when it runs low.
They list several partners who are going to release products using it - Brita water filters (buys new filters), Whirlpool washer/dryer (detergent), Brother printers (ink/toner) and Quirky who seems to have several products that all re-order consumables.
Looks like Amazon's investing heavily into the "Internet of Things" with this.
Well how about automatically compiling a grocery list of things you need for you... and a web interface that has a one click order for each item you need restocked?
The video reads like some kind of dystopian consumer hell. Everything comes in a packet from a trusted brand who is taking care of you. Consume! Consume! Consume! See you useless you are when you can't consume! Your whole day is ruined.
Good job we've got your back. We'll send you some more of those precious packets.
So then you don't get the coffee button. There are a set of products where selection isn't important or where you have brand loyalty (detergent is an excellent example).
Interesting link. Suggests that presenting unnecessary choice leads to passive behaviour. I'm thinking of active choices rather than seeing a row of a dozen different identical kitchen towel brands at the supermarket. Like, what are the ethical standards of this shop, how does it treat it's suppliers, does it exploit it's workforce etc.
Every decision is important, and every time it is automated for the sake of convenience is a little bit of disenfranchisement.
Again, it depends what you consider important. Purchasing decisions arguably dictate much transnational economic concerns. For example palm oil, the fair trade movement. As a global citizen I would say that was well spent decision juice.
I'm sitting higher up on my high horse than I started, but discussions tend to polarise / crystallize views!
Most supposedly anti-consumerism arguments I hear imply we should devote more attention to our purchases.
But, if you want an identity that isn't based on consumerism, it seems we should devote less attention to your purchases rather than more.
Honestly, I don't care about toilet paper. If I can hit a button and move on with the rest of my life, that seems better than spending time shopping for it.
what isn't to love about this, oh look i'm running out of bog roll so I push the button ordering more....a little while later it arrives - probably the next day with 0 p & p as i have amazon prime.
I get lots of small deliveries of whatever i need an can spend less time shopping - perfect.
This is the part that bothers me most. A lot of small deliveries are convenient and all, but the cost to ship multiple small items (maybe separately) to your door has an impact.
We are currently in a single-serve consumer-focused environment and this takes it a step farther.. potentially a single item shipment environment.
Unless they batch days or a full week, I think this is a bad habit to get in.
Did we see the same video? Those were all megabrands, probably all manufactured by a small number of Unilever-type companies. (Of course amazon carries it, they carry everything.)
Except this is literally FOR consumables. Like, detergent and toilet paper and things that get used up quickly.
If the physical button was free, I wouldn't mind having a few of these to just press when I need some more of something like that. Remembering to write it on a list and bring it with you to the store and pick it up is a bit of a hassle.
I already don't question my habits for paper towels or laundry detergent. I buy the same ones every time because it works and it's not worth optimizing the $20 of paper towels or detergent I'll buy every 6 months.
Maybe you're right about those particular things (but maybe in a dystopian future you would because the interference with competition drove the price up into local maxima).
Seriously though, do I question my habits when buying food, drinks and coffee. This video is saying "you can lock yourself into a cycle of dependence on this one brand of coffee and this one brand of water and this one brand of cheap unhealthy ready-made packaged food".
Either you find that unpalatable in principle or you don't. It's probably a cultural thing.
The conversation started about consumables like laundry detergent and paper towels, not food and drinks. So I'm not sure why food and drinks came up, and then why the further jump to "unhealthy" food and drinks.
Personally, I buy the same stuff over and over because it doesn't matter. I don't want to spend time worrying about things that don't matter.
No point dragging this out. But this conversation started with a video about how you can order things including food (e.g. microwave ready made food) and drinks (coffee and bottled water).
Why all of this talk about a dystopian future? I can choose to refill on a particular brand of paper towels without giving up my right to choose what I eat. This entire thread is full of absurdity.
What if I know what kind I like and don't want to change that? I don't see why you think it's such a bad idea for people who know what they like and want to make their lives easier with a little button. You don't have to get one, but don't try to make people who want one out to be mindless consumer drones.
I'm not commenting on the people who want to use the service, I'm commenting on the video which is unashamedly monoculture big-business. If they'd included a custom button for organic honey from the local local yoghurt-weaver I wouldn't feel quite so negative...
I would feel guilty using a button like this. I mean, do I seriously lack the time and/or willpower to go to the store and pick up my own groceries? Thanks Amazon, but I got this.
Between Google Shopping Express, Instacart, and Amazon Fresh, yes, I'd say there are tons of people who lack the time and/or willpower to do their own groceries.
> I mean, do I seriously lack the time and/or willpower to go to the store and pick up my own groceries?
I think it's more for refilling things you commonly use without needing to worry about them. I can't tell you how many times I've forgotten things like detergent when we were low or out but pressing a button when I notice it's out right after I use it? That's really low friction. It's not a half bad idea in my opinion.
Knock, knock. "Hi, I'm Alexa, and my OkCupid profile is a 94% match to yours. Because of that, OkC unlocked your pre-selected social profiles for my perusal. Google Now alerted me to the opening in your schedule right now, Uber took me to your house, and plus I saw you like that Thai food joint down the street based on your FourSquare, so I brought some. Oh, and I thought we might as well watch a comedy flick you've been wanting to see according to your Netflix."
I'm sure someone (more creative than me) could write a better one
Nah, no need for her to say all that, because that info will be pushed to your phone while she's on her way over. That will give you time to arrange Homejoy to come tidy your place up real quick, while you use the new Facebook Advanced Analyics to find out that there's a very strong correlation between how long she lingers on a guy's page and how short his hair is. So you Magic over a hairdresser for a quick buzzcut, while turning up some music you think she'll like (based on her Spotify account).
Works over Wi-Fi? Is there a screen on the back and a keypad to type the password and select the network? Wifi takes a lot of power. Does it use AAAs, or do you have to periodically recharge the batteries? That surely would be impractical. Especially if you have a button for multiple products in your house, as shown in the video - maintaining five or six of these things would be a pain. A separate Amazon app or a component of the Amazon app with a list of products you plan on reordering periodically seems much more practical.
Just doesn't seem plausible. April Fools is tomorrow.
My reading of it is that the app on the phone is used to configure the button, and the button from then on operates independently (which would be good in that it would allows others to use it when the original person isn't around). It's ambiguous, though, and could go either way.
Given that it would literally only have to connect to the wifi and do the API calls when the button is pressed, the power usage would be minuscule.
Not sure why there's so much doubt about itss use. This is amazing for things like detergent.
When I run out of detergent, I don't want to add it to shopping list. I don't want to remember when to buy. I just want it outside my door before I run out! This applies to any item that I don't feel like buying but have to buy regularly.
I was just thinking how this is a good idea that doesn't really apply to my living situation. And then my housemates started bugging me about ordering more printer toner.
Can I get a Dash button for any random product? 'Cause I want, well, pretty much just one.
This would be perfect for my pets items. I always buy the same products for them, and the pet store is always a detour from my typical shopping routine. I would even like to have a macro button, that combined hard food, soft food, and litter all in one order!
Does your two-year-old also turn on your stove burners? That seems a lot more dangerous. Put them out-of-reach. Worst case: they press the buttons anyway and you have to open an app and cancel the orders.
It's a intermediate step towards absolute frictionless purchasing.
We went from physical in-store cash payments to online 1-click delivery. The purchasing experience has continuously been quickened, to close the gap between the intent and the action.
Nowadays, running out of coffee capsules (for example) still requires some interaction, via your phone or your laptop. There's at least a dozen of seconds between the intent and the action.
Having a button attached to the products container doesn't only remove that intent/action gap physically but also mentally, because you're actually consuming the product at that exact moment.
The ultimate frictionless experience would be for coffee capsules to be delivered before running out of them, through a prediction system à la Google Now. But that would require some kind of physical tracking system...
Some people think it's an April fools joke. I'm not so sure. It makes sense to me.
This just seems like a stop-gap solution before the true solution which is wearables (or Amazon Echo/Glass).
Saying the name of what you want to buy into your smartwatch/glass/echo is going to be a lot more frictionless and scalable than putting these buttons all over your house.
If you think about what a butler would do, that's the logical endpoint, it could mostly be done in software I think. Given a budget and a set of goals (keep certain things stocked, fresh, replace when used) it would try to satisfy them. It might warn you if it can't, and you could adjust criteria if you don't like the results. Given the API that appears to be behind the buttons I think we're already at the point where you could create a device so you could just yell in frustration "GODDAMMIT I NEED MORE TIDE™" and then it shows up an hour later (in select cities).
> Given the API that appears to be behind the buttons I think we're already at the point where you could create a device so you could just yell in frustration "GODDAMMIT I NEED MORE TIDE™" and then it shows up an hour later (in select cities).
Now that door-to-door supermarket deliveries are a thing (at least, they are here in the UK) it actually seems that a lot of items would just be more convenient to order on a subscription basis. For example, I'm pretty much always* going to need toilet paper, soap, shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, tea bags, salt, pepper, etc. at about the same rate as I need them now. None of those things will spoil fast enough for it to be a problem if they're not delivered exactly when I need them. I would be delighted to just not have to think about the essentials and leave grocery shopping for the more interesting, impulsive decisions. These buttons seem to be just for the former, though. In other words, I'd rather not have the button OR the auto-running-out-sensing thing when a regular order would just be easier all round.
I'm annoyed they haven't closed the PID loop to track how many oz of mouthwash I consume, or use, per month, so it could predict how often to ship me various sizes and quantities of mouthwash.
Also being individual item oriented every time inflation leaves its mark and bottles shrink in size, my subscription is cancelled and I need to make a new S+S for the "new and improved" one oz smaller bottle. And every time the mfgr decides to play games with 2-pack vs 3-pack of bottles, I gotta resubscribe again. Really annoying.
What I want from amazon is a web interface of "based on order history I seem to be using 412.345 oz of mint mouthwash per year and amazon predicts I have 20.001 oz on hand (click here to update quantity on hand) and to meet our guarantee of you having 2 weeks supply on hand at all time we're shipping you our current mint mouthwash best deal of two bottles in one box" or whatever.
I get a pretty big S+S box every month. I have not automated down to weekly purchases like toilet paper but inevitably it'll happen some day. I wonder if they'll ever have a standard reusable stackable shipping crate like peapod food containers. That must be cheaper than all this cardboard.
I like the idea (diapers and UHT milk packets) until they tell me they can't fulfill the order every once in a while (or fulfill it significantly later). I get an email (and not in time to order a replacement elsewhere in time) and have to go about ensuring that I have enough.
If it's not reasonably reliable, it's not really worth subscribing to.
Didn't I just read on HN the other day that you can do motion tracking with audio? I wouldn't be shocked if my Nest thermostat and protect smoke detectors could geolocate my in my home.
not sure why this is being downvoted, but this seems like the best solution of all. it's still a one button operation but you're not locked in to pre-programmed choices and it can service the whole house (and office if you press it at work).
They really want to find a way to have me do exactly this. "Hey I need more detergent. Press skinner-box level. Great more detergent is on it's way! Right from your favorites list on Amazon."
And frankly, that would be great and wildly convenient.
If it all goes as planned, you will likely have that too automated(More like automated detection if you are running out of groceries, in some way), either self driving cars or drones will deliver it to you.
The data generated by even a few dozen people using these buttons will greatly improve prediction algorithms for consumables.
This is totally creepy and awesome.
I've got to drive to the store, find it, wait in line, check out, put it in my car and then drive home. That's much more friction than just pressing a button.
> But that would require some kind of physical tracking system...
Package RFID tags with every item, and a smart fridge/smart cabinet. It's not that hard.
A retailer like Walmart might even pay for the manufacturer to install these RFID tags, as they can be used double-duty in the retailer's own inventory process.
Or, you can do what I do -- a barcode scanner near my trash can that scans the UPC codes of everything that I throw away (or recycle) and adds it to my shopping list for the next time that I'm out.
I think the end game is delivery of a good by robotics in under an hour. I'm not sure what the next step in that is. But this doesn't solve the main problem Amazon faces that their traditional competition solves: I don't have a good, say laundry detergent, and I need it now. I'd wait an hour for a drone to deliver something to my apartment if it meant not having to go out to the store.
> Nowadays, running out of coffee capsules (for example) still requires some interaction, via your phone or your laptop.
Just taking a moment to enjoy that the above quote would have sounded exactly "like the future" to childhood me, and yet is both true and how I live my life today.
| The ultimate frictionless experience would be for coffee capsules to be delivered before running out of them
But it's not like people can't be this, without much mental overhead. If I know it takes two days to ship something, and I use it daily, and recognize I'll be out in three days - I'm gonna push that button.
It's frictionless because it integrates perfectly with the use of the product.
How long before automatic cat-feeders automatically purchase cat food for you?
Am I alone in thinking that it's already more than easy enough to buy things? E-commerce is great the way it is and sometimes I enjoy going out into the world to shop at a real store.
All this lock-in to Amazon does is obscure that these days you can find the same deal or better elsewhere with a little bit of looking. Especially with groceries and household items Amazon has never been as competitive as they consistently are with media.
You could say the same thing about Google. They launch so many products and if they don't work out they just disappear. Isn't that what an innovative company does? Try crazy things and see what works.
That's how innovation works: 99% of the time it doesn't. Think about that the next time you give a group a hard time for being too conservative. Whenever they are not conservative, people blast them for wasting time and money on something that has a 99% chance of failure.
I'll add one more to the list- whatever happened to that ridiculous device that sits in your living room and listens to your every word, responding when it happens to hear something it recognizes? I think it was called Echo?
Basically everything you get with any modern smartphone, only larger, more expensive, and probably technologically inferior!
It's $200 and if it only performs a small fraction of the functionality at what is almost certainly an inferior implementation that's a tough sale to make.
I believe it said the default setting is that it will only register a click as an order after the previous one was delivered. I could have misread that, though.
I guess kids these days have to learn H.P. Lovecraft the hard way...
"I say to you againe, doe not call up Any that you can not put downe; by the Which I meane, Any that can in Turne call up Somewhat against you, whereby your Powerfullest Devices may not be of use."
(edited to add, HP Lovecraft was my favorite sysadmin in my youth)
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[ 6.5 ms ] story [ 349 ms ] threadI mean, who will scatter these "buttons" all over their house, which will inevitably need new batteries at ever shorter and diverging intervals...
Hell, it could even automatically send you a new one when it detects it's battery is getting low.
On top of that, ~~the ESP8266 doesn't seem to implement wifi, it's just 2.4ghz general purpose radio.~~
There is definitely some cleverness happening here that allows them to get this to where it is. I'd love to get one just to tear it down.
I doubt the battery is even replaceable.
In the end though, the buttons are really just an advertisement for the real product: the API.
Maybe have one generic button that opens an app on your phone to choose an item from your 'frequently purchased' items.
I often leave re-stocking items till later and ultimately end up forgetting.
The razor one could go on the side of my medicine cabinet.
I'd stick the Bounty button to the wall above the paper towel holder in the kitchen.
Or condoms next to my bed? Awkward!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/06/condom-ambulance-se...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3775771.stm
It must an April fools joke.
Surely someone would have thought of this? Just seems like a really bad choice -- too bad for a company like Amazon to make (the timing, that is, coupled with a highly-branded product like this).
Not even sure that was around April fools, but my point is, bad coverage can, and has often, backfired.
What should Amazon know better about? Gmail launching on April Fools was a net positive thing.
If your toddler presses it, the worst they can do is order once. It's configured to only allow one order until the item is delivered. That isn't to say your toddler still cannot do damage...
Something about that video (and much of my opinion is based on the video and look of the product) makes me uneasy. It's suggesting my life is a series of purchases and top-ups, and I will be happier when I can click my branded button. Like a junkie or something. When the woman runs out of coffee it looks like she's lost a loved one. Quickly, press the button! A dystopian future, only today.
Then there are questions about when to press the button, will I have to factor delivery time and frequency of use to arrive at that answer? And will everything arrive separately? Will orders aggregate... Time will tell.
Of course, it's in Amazon's best economic interest to normalize and associate good feelings with the ideas of endless consumption and perpetually repeating purchasing.
The only "junkie" vibe I got from this was the k-cups.
There should be a button for the construction of Moai and another for a family set of inflatable row boats complete with solar-powered floating kitchen (the latter delivered by amphibious drone, of course).
Clearly, as a species, we have not yet learned anything about the collapse of civilizations, and in so doing, proceed to another Tragedy of Commons at a gentle pace, because it's "not an emergency." ("Boiling frog" parable.)
Carbon emissions need to be cut drastically, and this product sets a terrible example contrary to that.
I'm not sure I understand the blowback on how and when to push the button. It's only for amazon prime members right now, so presumably you'll press the button when you need something within the next few days.
Do you wait until you are completely out of something, drop everything and drive to a store and buy it, or do you plan ahead? Same thing here without having to go to a store or write it down on a list to remember.
This seems like a great product for the post-college individual, living away on their own for the first time (i.e. me). Heck, I know already that I'm low on detergent, yet I keep forgetting to go to the store to pick up more. Obviously that's my fault, but being able to LITERALLY press a button and have what I need appear at my doorstep is pretty sweet.
Though, I'm still not totally convinced that this isn't an April Fool's joke that's a day early...
Spoken like someone who thinks there's a single timezone on the planet.
The first shot of the phone is during setup. The second shot is the "an order was made" push notification, which you can use to cancel the order, but no action means it will just go through.
Hum, wait a minute...
Maybe considering their history of product announcements (Amazon Echo), they're being cautious about it this time. If it gets mocked, they'll just say "Oh it was an April Fool's joke"
Information is here: https://www.amazon.com/oc/dash-replenishment-service
Apparently, Whirlpool washing machines and Brita water filters will be using it. This doesn't help for basics like paper towels, but it would work for paper towel holders (if it's true). The IoT is here.
This is for people who don't care what things cost and that don't have children (children loooove pressing buttons!).
2. I also believe it said that repeat clicks will not order until the previous order delivers, which should help somewhat on repeat orders.
Haha as I read TFA I envisioned the UPS guy unloading boxes and boxes of toilet paper at the homes of my young nieces and nephews.
Every once in a while the button will just randomly stop working and you'll have to go through the motions again.
Looking at you, printer/scanner combos that won't print because the scanner is failing.
And there is absolutely no indication it's hardcoded to use a specific product.
Hardware is the easy bit in the whole IoT business model. The tricky bit will be persuading people that it's something they need. For this business model to work it has to solve a big enough problem that taking the time to sign up for something like this button, getting it delivered, setting it up, and actually remembering to press it when necessary is worth the effort. That's a challenging thing to market to people - especially those who live outside of the tech industry. Which is most people.
"Build it, they will come" will not work here. Because it doesn't work anywhere.
CPGs will pay a LOT for this because it makes their brands "stickier". I can't tell you what brand of paper towels I normally buy, but if I always bought them through my "Bounty" button, I would always buy Bounty paper towels instead of whatever is on sale at the store.
I doubt this button connects to Wi-Fi directly - that's too much hassle (and too power-hungry). I wonder if Amazon has some sort of Zigbee-like controller embedded in the Amazon Echo that is set up to manage low-power devices like this.
Exactly right, and this is exactly analogous to brands (or more often, their distributors) renting shelf space, and sometimes even hiring their own people to stock shelves.
(Like most stuff coming out of Amazon, I can't actually tell if this is a good idea)
They list several partners who are going to release products using it - Brita water filters (buys new filters), Whirlpool washer/dryer (detergent), Brother printers (ink/toner) and Quirky who seems to have several products that all re-order consumables.
Looks like Amazon's investing heavily into the "Internet of Things" with this.
♫ The cat came back, the very next day ♫
Good job we've got your back. We'll send you some more of those precious packets.
And how is this different from the present ? Everything comes non-packets ? From an untrusted brand ? That dystopian future sounds better somehow.
[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego_depletion#Consumer_behavior
Every decision is important, and every time it is automated for the sake of convenience is a little bit of disenfranchisement.
Again, it depends what you consider important. Purchasing decisions arguably dictate much transnational economic concerns. For example palm oil, the fair trade movement. As a global citizen I would say that was well spent decision juice.
I'm sitting higher up on my high horse than I started, but discussions tend to polarise / crystallize views!
Close; bulk ingredients and reusable containers, from a minimally branded supplier to which I have no loyalty.
But, if you want an identity that isn't based on consumerism, it seems we should devote less attention to your purchases rather than more.
Honestly, I don't care about toilet paper. If I can hit a button and move on with the rest of my life, that seems better than spending time shopping for it.
I get lots of small deliveries of whatever i need an can spend less time shopping - perfect.
We are currently in a single-serve consumer-focused environment and this takes it a step farther.. potentially a single item shipment environment.
Unless they batch days or a full week, I think this is a bad habit to get in.
"The dream of the 1890's is alive in Portland..."
I swear, mutants under the overpasses...
Then again, I doubt my current preferred brand[0] would be available with a branded button.
[0] http://uk.ecover.com/en/products/laundry/
If the physical button was free, I wouldn't mind having a few of these to just press when I need some more of something like that. Remembering to write it on a list and bring it with you to the store and pick it up is a bit of a hassle.
This could be pretty handy to have.
Seriously though, do I question my habits when buying food, drinks and coffee. This video is saying "you can lock yourself into a cycle of dependence on this one brand of coffee and this one brand of water and this one brand of cheap unhealthy ready-made packaged food".
Either you find that unpalatable in principle or you don't. It's probably a cultural thing.
Personally, I buy the same stuff over and over because it doesn't matter. I don't want to spend time worrying about things that don't matter.
"Maybe I can go without wiping my ass this time?"
I think it's more for refilling things you commonly use without needing to worry about them. I can't tell you how many times I've forgotten things like detergent when we were low or out but pressing a button when I notice it's out right after I use it? That's really low friction. It's not a half bad idea in my opinion.
Except your kids won't spam that on your phone, like they would with a physical button.
Or you can't reorder until you sit through a 30-second Tide commercial first.
Knock, knock. "Hi, I'm Alexa, and my OkCupid profile is a 94% match to yours. Because of that, OkC unlocked your pre-selected social profiles for my perusal. Google Now alerted me to the opening in your schedule right now, Uber took me to your house, and plus I saw you like that Thai food joint down the street based on your FourSquare, so I brought some. Oh, and I thought we might as well watch a comedy flick you've been wanting to see according to your Netflix."
I'm sure someone (more creative than me) could write a better one
http://robrhinehart.com/?p=1005
Fresh bake bread at the tap of a button™
Press a button and do you your laundry™
Need more weed? There's a button for that™
Euphoric, narcotic, pleasantly hallucinant, press for Soma™
Rat in a cage? Press for food!™
Just doesn't seem plausible. April Fools is tomorrow.
Given that it would literally only have to connect to the wifi and do the API calls when the button is pressed, the power usage would be minuscule.
When I run out of detergent, I don't want to add it to shopping list. I don't want to remember when to buy. I just want it outside my door before I run out! This applies to any item that I don't feel like buying but have to buy regularly.
Can I get a Dash button for any random product? 'Cause I want, well, pretty much just one.
Stove burners are deliberately a lot less easy to activate than push buttons.
It's not the knob that stops them, it's being disciplined by parents.
We went from physical in-store cash payments to online 1-click delivery. The purchasing experience has continuously been quickened, to close the gap between the intent and the action.
Nowadays, running out of coffee capsules (for example) still requires some interaction, via your phone or your laptop. There's at least a dozen of seconds between the intent and the action.
Having a button attached to the products container doesn't only remove that intent/action gap physically but also mentally, because you're actually consuming the product at that exact moment.
The ultimate frictionless experience would be for coffee capsules to be delivered before running out of them, through a prediction system à la Google Now. But that would require some kind of physical tracking system...
Some people think it's an April fools joke. I'm not so sure. It makes sense to me.
Saying the name of what you want to buy into your smartwatch/glass/echo is going to be a lot more frictionless and scalable than putting these buttons all over your house.
http://www.amazon.com/oc/echo/
https://www.amazon.com/oc/dash-replenishment-service
"Wait, you expect me to actually PUSH A BUTTON?"
There are other services like ManPacks, Dollar Shave Club, etc that offer subscriptions to everyday essentials.
Also being individual item oriented every time inflation leaves its mark and bottles shrink in size, my subscription is cancelled and I need to make a new S+S for the "new and improved" one oz smaller bottle. And every time the mfgr decides to play games with 2-pack vs 3-pack of bottles, I gotta resubscribe again. Really annoying.
What I want from amazon is a web interface of "based on order history I seem to be using 412.345 oz of mint mouthwash per year and amazon predicts I have 20.001 oz on hand (click here to update quantity on hand) and to meet our guarantee of you having 2 weeks supply on hand at all time we're shipping you our current mint mouthwash best deal of two bottles in one box" or whatever.
I get a pretty big S+S box every month. I have not automated down to weekly purchases like toilet paper but inevitably it'll happen some day. I wonder if they'll ever have a standard reusable stackable shipping crate like peapod food containers. That must be cheaper than all this cardboard.
If it's not reasonably reliable, it's not really worth subscribing to.
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This was my pet peeve with Star Trek... Always having to tell the computer to do basic shit it should just do automatically .
Not
Me: Computer do we need milk? Computer: Let me check, Yes. Me: Order some then. Computer: Ok.
http://www.amazon.com/oc/echo
They really want to find a way to have me do exactly this. "Hey I need more detergent. Press skinner-box level. Great more detergent is on it's way! Right from your favorites list on Amazon."
And frankly, that would be great and wildly convenient.
Package RFID tags with every item, and a smart fridge/smart cabinet. It's not that hard.
A retailer like Walmart might even pay for the manufacturer to install these RFID tags, as they can be used double-duty in the retailer's own inventory process.
https://github.com/danslimmon/oscar
Like you said, and intermediate step.
Just taking a moment to enjoy that the above quote would have sounded exactly "like the future" to childhood me, and yet is both true and how I live my life today.
But it's not like people can't be this, without much mental overhead. If I know it takes two days to ship something, and I use it daily, and recognize I'll be out in three days - I'm gonna push that button.
It's frictionless because it integrates perfectly with the use of the product.
How long before automatic cat-feeders automatically purchase cat food for you?
All this lock-in to Amazon does is obscure that these days you can find the same deal or better elsewhere with a little bit of looking. Especially with groceries and household items Amazon has never been as competitive as they consistently are with media.
Can you see how this idea is ill considered? IT doesn't make much sense.
I predict in 5 years nobody will remember this and it will be gone from Amazon's site.
But for this press cycle it's PR that makes Amazon look "innovative" and like a "tech company".
Just like the Amazon fire phone did... for a little while. How much was wasted on that idea?
Basically everything you get with any modern smartphone, only larger, more expensive, and probably technologically inferior!
"I say to you againe, doe not call up Any that you can not put downe; by the Which I meane, Any that can in Turne call up Somewhat against you, whereby your Powerfullest Devices may not be of use."
(edited to add, HP Lovecraft was my favorite sysadmin in my youth)
That beats Pacmaps for sure!