Amazon Dash Button • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon Dash Button

#541

Post by yellowapple » Tue, Mar 31, 2015, 8:59 PM UTC

bpicolo wrote: post #437

gus_massa wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My problem is with some items that I buy only twice a month, like bath soap or mayonnaise. I notice that it's about get empty (or it's already empty :() and I put them in my mental to-buy list. If I'm lucky I'll remember them the next time that I go to the supermarket. And probably also the following time and a few more times until I realize that I got a lot of it and I remove the item from the list. So I don't have…

I buy those things like...once every 3 months

I'm pretty sure my jar of mayo has lasted me for, like, a year.

Re: Amazon Dash Button

#542

Post by csuwldcat » Tue, Mar 31, 2015, 9:00 PM UTC

javadocmd wrote: post #307

scott_s wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This button isn't about saving time, it's about preventing the instances of not having something when you need it. The moment when you realize you need more of something is typically when you're using it. If you can literally just hit a button to order more, that's a significant change from having to do something else to order more.

> This button isn't about saving time ... it's about creating a barrier to exit so that your customers won't comparison shop for different brands of detergent.

No, that's easily solved: you can set the product the button purchases (obviously), and the day after the API is made available a zillion little intercept-button-push-then-scrap-n-compare projects will pop-up on HN that find you the lowest priced product just in time when you push the button.

Re: Amazon Dash Button

#543

Post by imranq » Tue, Mar 31, 2015, 9:01 PM UTC

April Fools

Re: Amazon Dash Button

#544

Post by ghaff » Tue, Mar 31, 2015, 9:01 PM UTC

nogridbag wrote: post #381

nthj wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not about saving time, it's about avoiding context switches. Also I'm really bad at remembering that I'm out of something even 5 seconds later, much less when I'm at the store racking my brain for what I'm running low on.

I ordered the Amazon Echo for this - which will ship sometime in the next century. But this now makes it obsolete.

Really? They're still backlogged? Are they being hand crafted by a small village of elves?

I did eventually get mine back in February or so. The add to shopping list feature is very convenient. I don't see this obsoleting that Echo function which is much more general purpose. (Can add anything whether you get it from Amazon or somewhere else.)

Re: Amazon Dash Button

#545

Post by icebraining » Tue, Mar 31, 2015, 9:01 PM UTC

freehunter wrote: post #434

bch wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea isn't to "get social" only in your personal hour of need, though.

I've known people who used government assistance after losing their job, then just a few years later complain about people using welfare and unemployment income. Some of us Americans can be really weird when it comes to helping out our neighbors.

Don't worry, we Europeans can be weird too. There's always some group that doesn't really deserve it.

Re: Amazon Dash Button

#546

Post by tedks » Tue, Mar 31, 2015, 9:03 PM UTC

hypertexthero wrote: post #455

Harper's Magazine, September 1996: > From an interview with Kurt Vonnegut in the November 1995 issue of Inc. Technology. Vonnegut was asked to discuss his feelings about living in an increasingly computerized world. >> I work at home, and if I wanted to, I could have a computer right by my bed, and I'd never have to leave it. But I use a typewriter, and afterward I mark up the pages with a pencil. Then I call up this…

>I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you any different.

Easy to say that, sitting on a Hugo award and the subsequent career of Kurt Vonnegut.

Re: Amazon Dash Button

#547

Post by icebraining » Tue, Mar 31, 2015, 9:03 PM UTC

giarc wrote: post #505

usaphp wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I really don't get why so many people here dislike the idea behind Dash Button Welcome to HN, where some people think they just have to dislike everything they see on top to show how "unique" they are.

HN hated Dropbox......

Not true. Most comments were positive, and even the ones that showed reservations, hardly "hated".

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863

Re: Amazon Dash Button

#548

Post by run4yourlives2 » Tue, Mar 31, 2015, 9:04 PM UTC

refurb wrote: post #436

run4yourlives2 wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is actually ignorant of any real experience with those systems. Yes, there's a cost, but tax rates in the US aren't ultra low compared to every other country in the world. It's not so much how much money you spend, but what you spend it on that is the real difference.

The US tax system offers a lot of deductions. When I first moved here I was paying ~12% in total taxes (state + federal) on $60K worth of income once I took advantage of the 401k deduction, mortgage interest deduction, etc,etc.

I'm not sure where you came from, but the US system offers more or less the same deductions as other systems. On $60K, the tax rate in Canada for example would be about 15-17%, before credits.

Add your health care costs to that 12% and I think you'll find Canada has the cheaper rate, and you still get to take advantage of many (not all) of the same credits a typical American can.

Re: Amazon Dash Button

#549

Post by PanMan » Tue, Mar 31, 2015, 9:04 PM UTC

thecodemonkey wrote: post #259

I can't help thinking about the internals of this thing. Does it communicate via WiFi or Bluetooth? What about battery life time and manufacturing cost per unit? The form factor looks pretty slim.

It says it uses wifi. There are $5 wifi modules, which I guess would have enough processing to remember your wifi, and do 1 HTTP request, and (in volume) should be feasible for $10. A spark core (which has a bit more functions), costs $20 retail.

Re: Amazon Dash Button

#550

Post by icebraining » Tue, Mar 31, 2015, 9:04 PM UTC

duaneb wrote: post #495

kristofferR wrote: post #144

This makes me envious of you Americans. Here in Norway online shopping involves finding an online store that sells what you need (there's no site that sells everything, like Amazon, here), going through a cumbersome sign-up/payment process, paying a lot of money for the shipping costs, waiting several days and having to go to the post office unless the package is really small (or if you're willing to pay even more fo…

> we need to physically go to the store and buy the same stuff over and over and over again. The horror.... The "dystopian consumer hell" is that humans spend their time making this crap instead of, you know, something that's not a complete waste of time and resources.

Or writing HN posts.