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Amazon will pull the plug on dash buttons

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Re: Amazon will pull the plug on dash buttons

#91

Post by grendelt »

dfeojm-zlib wrote: post #67

Amazon's :CueCat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CueCat https://hackaday.com/tag/dash-button/

Those CueCat scanners were a great way to scan used textbooks when I was selling them in college. They just magically spit out a text string followed by a when scanning a barcode. They were going for dirt cheap on eBay for a number of years.

In college, on finals week I'd get $100-200 cash and go to the bookstore. I'd hear they were buying back certain popular textbooks for next to nothing. I'd offer the seller $10 cash right there on the spot. "Sell to them or sell to me, it's the same price. Here's a $10 bill." After getting a stack of those (or when profs were cleaning out their bookshelves), I'd lug them home, scan with my CueCat and sell them for a substantial markup on half.com (RIP). One semester I found a stack of books outside faculty offices labeled "free" - sold those for $500 that weekend.

Re: Amazon will pull the plug on dash buttons

#92

Post by esotericn »

schristou88 wrote: post #90
esotericn wrote: post #88

I don't understand the appeal behind ordering something without knowing the price. The only thing I ever buy without knowing the cost is a drink in a pub, and that's some sort of strange anachronism. And in that situation, if the bartender turns around and tells me 25 quid or whatever after pouring it, I'd just walk off. The economy doesn't work properly if you just blindly pay whatever.

During setup of the dash button you tell amazon what you want the button to purchase. When setting up the button you get a few choices to choose and you pick one to link, so whenever the button is pressed it will order that exact product. When you pick the product you’re also told the price.

The price changes.

Re: Amazon will pull the plug on dash buttons

#93

Post by shostack »

amelius wrote: post #77
sct202 wrote: post #11

I never really got the point of them since they were usually for things that stored really well and get used up at a relatively constant rate so it's usually not a surprise when you run out, so like why would I need to rush and blindly push the button to buy more detergent/toothpaste of a certain brand without knowing the price when I'd just eventually buy it in my normal shopping run/order.

Yeah, what I really want is a service that buys detergent/toothpaste in bulk when the price is below a certain given threshold.

Could you script something with CamelCamelCamel?

Re: Amazon will pull the plug on dash buttons

#95

Post by corobo »

adrianmonk wrote: post #84
kalleboo wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My Amazon app has a section of "virtual dash buttons" down the bottom with only consumable items and they all purchase directly with one tap

Huh, so it does exist! I had to scroll through an almost endless list of tiles, but I was able to find it. (I tried a second time to count how many, and it wasn't there that time.) Turns out it's also possible to intentionally navigate to it: app menu (top left "hamburger" icon) -> "See All Programs" (under "Programs and Features" group in menu) -> "Your Dash Buttons". And the UI looks just like dash buttons. With bu…

I’m half surprised Amazon doesn’t have a widget or something that displays the virtual dash buttons

I say half surprised. They’re probably avoiding Apple’s 30% cut or something

Re: Amazon will pull the plug on dash buttons

#96

Post by tzs »

esotericn wrote: post #88

I don't understand the appeal behind ordering something without knowing the price. The only thing I ever buy without knowing the cost is a drink in a pub, and that's some sort of strange anachronism. And in that situation, if the bartender turns around and tells me 25 quid or whatever after pouring it, I'd just walk off. The economy doesn't work properly if you just blindly pay whatever.

A lot of the products seem to be small household items, like razor blades, trash bags, water filters, and the like, that when you run out you are (1) probably going to want to replace with the same brand, (2) probably don't want to put off replacing to wait for a bargain, and (3) probably will still buy even if the price is a little more than the last time, but within the normal Amazon price variation.

Also, according to their documentation, pressing the button queues the order and sends you an email, which includes price information. You can cancel the order before it ships. I'd expect that the normal flow for most people is to press the button when they notice they are running out of something, and then check the order details when they next deal with email.

Re: Amazon will pull the plug on dash buttons

#97

Post by thr0w4w4yy »

ta0987 wrote: post #85
thr0w4w4yy wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much friction is there really in adding “toilet paper” to your shopping list and grabbing it during the next grocery run? It really feels like a solution in search of a problem.

a lot, if you're e.g. depressed though to be fair, I am (was?) too depressed to even set up the dash buttons

I suffer from depression as well, but I don’t think dash buttons would do nearly enough to help me (not being able to do basic tasks is a symptom, and no amount of automation will make the depression go away). And at least for me, getting out of the house helps. It forces me to shower and put on pants, otherwise I run out of toilet paper and detergent.

Re: Amazon will pull the plug on dash buttons

#99

Post by dhash »

ihuman wrote: post #17
phlowbieuq wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As of now, Amazon appears to still be selling their "IOT button" (which is basically a programmable dash button) https://aws.amazon.com/iotbutton/

The $15 "1st Generation AWS IoT Button" is out of stock, but the $20 "AWS IoT Enterprise Button" is still in stock. Is there a difference besides the label?

The first gen ones are able to speak MQTT as well as integrate with AWS IoT core, so they could also fire off lambdas, hit SQS, etc.

The new ones are strictly worse, only able to be bound to a Lambda

Re: Amazon will pull the plug on dash buttons

#100

Post by lazerwalker »

corobo wrote: post #95
adrianmonk wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh, so it does exist! I had to scroll through an almost endless list of tiles, but I was able to find it. (I tried a second time to count how many, and it wasn't there that time.) Turns out it's also possible to intentionally navigate to it: app menu (top left "hamburger" icon) -> "See All Programs" (under "Programs and Features" group in menu) -> "Your Dash Buttons". And the UI looks just like dash buttons. With bu…

I’m half surprised Amazon doesn’t have a widget or something that displays the virtual dash buttons I say half surprised. They’re probably avoiding Apple’s 30% cut or something

FWIW, Apple's 30% cut doesn't apply. You can't use Apple's IAP system for physical goods.
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