Amazon Dash • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon Dash

#141

Post by nolok » Sat, Apr 05, 2014, 12:02 AM UTC

scep12 wrote: post #95

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…

Alternatively, if you had an 'always listening phone' like the Moto X, your flow might go something like this: Option A 1. Ask your phone to buy {name of item} 2. Screen turns on, tap to confirm your purchase Option B 1. Find the Dash device 2. Scan the item (if you haven't already discarded or recycled it, and haven't ruined the barcode in the process of opening it) 3. Confirm and pay To me, Dash feels like a (possi…

> 1. Ask your phone to buy {name of item}

Outside theory, I don't see that working very well in the real world currently.

On amazon fresh website, there are currently

229 results for "green apples"

8 results for "granny smith apples"

2 results for "1 granny smith apples"

Same with ham, eggs, or any other products really. Sure, the user could be more specific, but then it gets a lot more work and problematic than simply scan the damn barcode for this "4-in-1 pack of organic spanish strawberry yoghurt march special offer".

Re: Amazon Dash

#142

Post by flyt » Sat, Apr 05, 2014, 12:02 AM UTC

revelation wrote: post #55

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

Its expansion was limited due to state sales tax laws, and Amazon's historical attempts to avoid customers paying sales taxes. Now that they are largely collecting sales taxes they can expand into more local services like Fresh. Most of these laws changed in the last couple years.

Re: Amazon Dash

#143

Post by notatoad » Sat, Apr 05, 2014, 12:02 AM UTC

nivla wrote: post #82

wehadfun wrote: post #31

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

This totally reminded me of CueCat. Despite CueCat being free, it was commonly sold on ebay because it made the cheapest barcode scanner on market. Amazon dash will end up being similarly awesome for hobbiest to hack on.

it's free (with a $299/yr amazon fresh account). that's very much not the same thing as free.

Re: Amazon Dash

#144

Post by pzb » Sat, Apr 05, 2014, 12:03 AM UTC

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.)

It can run in AP mode and serves a webpage that asks for the key at which point it switches back to client mode.

Re: Amazon Dash

#145

Post by zo1 » Sat, Apr 05, 2014, 12:05 AM UTC

blobbers wrote: post #79

Has anyone else noticed that this completely rips off Hiku? Or is this repackaging the same product? http://hiku.us/what-is-hiku/

And the hiku does what, exactly? One of the most useless websites I've ever seen. It barely has any details on what the hiku is or what it does; and if I wanted more info, I'd have to go to their support section on another domain to peruse their "FAQ".

No thanks.

Re: Amazon Dash

#146

Post by zo1 » Sat, Apr 05, 2014, 12:07 AM UTC

justinpaulson wrote: post #3

Why would they make a device rather than an app to do this? Seems pretty awesome as a service though...if Amazon Fresh was available here.

Have you ever tried to scan barcodes with a cellphone? For anything other than some sort of "novelty" "let's trying this cool new QR hipster app" type of situation.

Re: Amazon Dash

#147

Post by notatoad » Sat, Apr 05, 2014, 12:08 AM UTC

anigbrowl wrote: post #110

I'm surprised this exists to be honest. Not because of smartphones, but because I thought RFID chips would be sufficiently disposable by now that we'd have smart refrigerators and trashcans. I had to buy a new refrigerator last year and I was struck by how many different kinds of ice dispensers there were (a feature in which I have no interest whatsoever) vs smart refrigerators. I found exactly one of the latter - th…

RFID chips are sufficiently disposable if you can find a use case for them, but they don't really add anything to the average grocery shopping experience. having to take every item out of your cart and pass it over a scanner is a desirable pattern for the grocery store, as it's a great way to prevent theft. They don't want to find a way to eliminate this interaction, so there hasn't been a whole lot of reason put RFID tags on everything in the grocery store.

Re: Amazon Dash

#148

Post by moonka » Sat, Apr 05, 2014, 12:10 AM UTC

gregcohn wrote: post #135

lovemenot wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 inter…

noting that a $299/year Amazon fresh subscription is required to play, this thing probably amortizes itself and then some pretty quickly. (Increases frequency of orders, increases number of things ordered, likely to increase retention of users ie length of subscription.)

What subscription are you referring to? If you spend $300 a month you get the big radish program which gives you lower minimums for delivery, but other than that there's no subscription program afaik.

Edited: I guess in the bay area it's a subscription program. In Seattle there's no subscription so I was confused.

Re: Amazon Dash

#149

Post by oneeyedpigeon » Sat, Apr 05, 2014, 12:12 AM UTC

notatoad wrote: post #143

nivla wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This totally reminded me of CueCat. Despite CueCat being free, it was commonly sold on ebay because it made the cheapest barcode scanner on market. Amazon dash will end up being similarly awesome for hobbiest to hack on.

it's free (with a $299/yr amazon fresh account). that's very much not the same thing as free.

If it 'breaks', will Amazon send you another one?

Re: Amazon Dash

#150

Post by jmelloy » Sat, Apr 05, 2014, 12:14 AM UTC

azernik wrote: post #35

patja wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure that would help them. Amazon Fresh doesn't have a great record for beating grocery store pricing. See http://www.cnet.com/news/amazonfresh-vs-supermarket-a-hands-... which matches my personal experience when I've compared baskets of products my family commonly purchases. I will say when we used it, the produce quality was very good which was one of my concerns. Seems like they went above and beyond to ad…

The $299 annual fee does give some sticker shock, but annualized that's only about $6 per week (more like $4-5 if you already have a regular Prime membership and deduct that existing cost). Especially if you're shopping for 2 or more, that comes out to a pretty small tax on your regular grocery bill.

$299 + $100 for Prime, actually.

We use Amazon Fresh in Seattle for all of our groceries. There's no membership fee, and if they made me start paying $400/year for it, I'd never order again.