Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Amazon Dash

fresh.amazon.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 262 posts

Re: Amazon Dash

#111

Post by ericcumbee »

dotBen wrote: post #32

HN'ers asking why this isn't a cell phone app take note - this exemplifies why we (geeks) don't make good use cases for consumer tech and we should always be careful looking to our own habits and values when in a Product Development role. We're rarely the target customer and rarely behave like "average Joe". We're naturally resistant to superfluous redundancy ("My phone can already snap a barcode, I don't need a sepa…

This if Amazon Fresh were available in her Area is targeted right at my grandmother. She Has Macular Degeneration and can not drive. My Grandfather has to drive and his energy level seems to diminish by the day. So needless to say Grocery Shopping takes both of them. With her eyes a smartphone is more or less useless. But this having a speech function seems like it would be perfect for her.

Re: Amazon Dash

#112

Post by zhemao »

[deleted] wrote: post #109
dotBen wrote: post #32

HN'ers asking why this isn't a cell phone app take note - this exemplifies why we (geeks) don't make good use cases for consumer tech and we should always be careful looking to our own habits and values when in a Product Development role. We're rarely the target customer and rarely behave like "average Joe". We're naturally resistant to superfluous redundancy ("My phone can already snap a barcode, I don't need a sepa…

[deleted]

It sounds like you're not familiar with Amazon Fresh (understandable given that it's currently only available in 3 cities in the US). You don't have to use this device to buy groceries from Amazon Fresh. You can just use their run-of-the-mill web store. https://fresh.amazon.com/welcome

It's been available in Seattle for almost a year now, long before this thing came out.

Re: Amazon Dash

#113

Post by lucb1e »

Does anyone know how they connect to WiFi? There's like two buttons and one beep for I/O.

(Half joking: Or is it a Speak Friend And Enter kind of thing, where you have to speak the WiFi credentials.)

Re: Amazon Dash

#114

Post by stephencanon »

lowglow wrote: post #92
alaskamiller wrote: post #16

Number of steps to scan grocery by phone: 1. Find your phone 2. Unlock 3. Swipe left to home page three or maybe four 4. Visually scan for the AmazonFresh icon and tap 5. Wait for loading 6. Start scanning action 7. Confirm and pay Number of steps to scan grocery by Dash: 1. Get device from drawer or pantry 2. Press one button and scan 3. Confirm and pay For the target demo (30+, married, households with children), o…

Classic over engineering. "Number of steps to scan grocery by phone" Most people just use pencil + paper, or notepad/note app on phone. Never have I seen people actually use technology while shopping unless it's a typed out list.

Agreed.

In fairness however, my wife and I use grocery lists on our phones all the time (though it's only two steps, not the OP's 7: (1) "put peaches on my grocery list" (2) confirm).

Re: Amazon Dash

#115

Post by saraid216 »

dangrossman wrote: post #96

Based on the comments, I'm guessing few poeople here have ever worked retail and held a barcode scanner. Break out your phone, load up your barcode scanning app (there's 20 seconds right there even if the phone is in your pocket). Now try to actually scan something with it. You'll spend another 30 seconds lining up the little on-screen window with the code, rotating things, waiting for the camera to focus, and even h…

I have personally completely given up on scanning QR codes and barcodes with a camera phone. It's just never worth it.

Re: Amazon Dash

#116

Post by lovemenot »

mrxd wrote: post #69
dotBen wrote: post #32

HN'ers asking why this isn't a cell phone app take note - this exemplifies why we (geeks) don't make good use cases for consumer tech and we should always be careful looking to our own habits and values when in a Product Development role. We're rarely the target customer and rarely behave like "average Joe". We're naturally resistant to superfluous redundancy ("My phone can already snap a barcode, I don't need a sepa…

Agreed. Other advantages: A dedicated device means everyone in the household can use it without the friction of having to help everyone find the app and register with the same account. People without phones (like kids) can use it. It's designed to sit on the kitchen counter or hooked on to something. That physical presence reminds you to use it when you're in the kitchen, where an app buried on the last page of the h…

And here's a few more.

Dash device is an exemplar of a service in the same way that a Kindle device is. Amazon retains the option to later go the other way too, but while the constraint is still on the supply side (limited markets) this device serves to fix the service as a thing and generate publicity.

Also, the platform is controlled by Amazon. Free from interference by Apple, Google, OEM or carrier. Wifi and internet aside, all support issues will be standard and coming back to the same place.

For a mass-market voice UI device with no screen, at this stage in the game, voice recognition has to be best in class. I doubt Amazon could have managed this through a plethora of mobile devices. And they would not want their commercial voice data to be processed on Apple's or Google's servers via OS services.

I expect a tear-down will show that some of the parts used are, for now, relatively expensive, but at volume, this device can become a give-away / throw-away.

Re: Amazon Dash

#117

Post by ams6110 »

dgarrett wrote: post #58
wehadfun wrote: post #31

For some reason this made me thing of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CueCat

The CueCat has a wire. Possibly a case of doing one thing wrong that ruined the entire product. We'll see.

At the time, though, Bluetooth was neither common nor very easy to work with on home PCs.

Re: Amazon Dash

#118

Post by revelation »

techsupporter wrote: post #65
revelation wrote: post #55

Why is Amazon gold plating their fresh service when they didn't manage to meaningfully expand it since 2007?

Even if they hadn't expanded beyond Seattle, Seattle is their "home market" where lots of their employees live and a rather good market for a wide-availability grocer. Fred Meyer stores nor its QFC sibling hold a candle to any halfway-decent actual-Kroger from back home. Safeway is just Tom Thumb with a 20% markup. This isn't exactly the Dallas/Fort Worth grocery region, with 11 (yes, eleven) full-service grocery cha…

Here is my problem: it's been in this perpetual beta mode since 2007.

At some point they should be done with all the market research there is to do and either go big or stop wasting resources on building gadgets for it.

Re: Amazon Dash

#119

Post by ams6110 »

lucb1e wrote: post #113

Does anyone know how they connect to WiFi? There's like two buttons and one beep for I/O. (Half joking: Or is it a Speak Friend And Enter kind of thing, where you have to speak the WiFi credentials.)

Would guess you have to do some initial setup on some other way, maybe via USB connection to your computer.

Re: Amazon Dash

#120

Post by interstitial »

pinaceae wrote: post #107
dotBen wrote: post #32

HN'ers asking why this isn't a cell phone app take note - this exemplifies why we (geeks) don't make good use cases for consumer tech and we should always be careful looking to our own habits and values when in a Product Development role. We're rarely the target customer and rarely behave like "average Joe". We're naturally resistant to superfluous redundancy ("My phone can already snap a barcode, I don't need a sepa…

you talk as if this already was a runaway success with consumers. did i miss something? cuecat bombed as well. maybe it will take off, maybe it will not. drawing any conclusions right now is bs.

Did you get the memo? HN users can deduce the future from a few well stated postulates that engender no controversy or original thought. When expectations are shattered by renegades and outliers, HN spends the next two weeks publishing reasons why we knew it all along.
Post reply on HN