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Amazon Dash

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Re: Amazon Dash

#211

Post by Ma8ee »

zanny wrote: post #43
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…

Opening an app is, thankfully, something the tech industry has managed to train the average consumer to do. I'd argue though remembering where you put this thing, or "oh hey the wifi password got changed why isn't the food scanner working?" adds lots more complexity than hitting an app icon. The app route also enables you to have multiple scanners - since the target audience of such a product is probably already heav…

Opening an app is awkward when you do something else, in particular something like cooking. This gadget I just pick up from the counter, press a button and scan or speak. I don't have to worry about slightly wet or dirty fingers. Compare that with my phone, which either is somewhere else in the house or in my pocket. Before I pick it up from my pocket I want to make sure that don't have meat juice, tomato sauce or chocolate on my fingers. I have to press one button to start the phone, maybe press a pin code, find the app either by sweeping between several screens with icons or by starting search and type several characters hopefully not making any mistakes and finally be able to scan or speak to the app. At this point the meat is burnt and the sauce has boiled over.

Dedicated devises definitely have their uses, and this one is one of them.

Re: Amazon Dash

#212

Post by Ma8ee »

aray wrote: post #44

Anyone know the battery life/lifetime of these? If it's months, that's a lot more convenient to keep in the pantry. As a kitchen appliance it makes a lot of sense, but I don't have any muscle memory for "charging" appliances.

I could imagine that it is months. Compare with the kindle that needs charging not even once a month even with frequent use.

Re: Amazon Dash

#213

Post by callum85 »

scep12 wrote: post #176
nolok wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 simp…

First - what's simple about "simply scan the damn barcode"? Simplicity is telling your phone that you ran out of pasta sauce, not stocking a barcode scanner in your pantry. The hardware may be sleek, but amazon's solution most certainly isn't. For a company with amazon's resources, I'd expect more. Next - presuming that you bought something from Amazon, why do you need the barcode? If I recently bought and/or regular…

You're not considering that a lot of people might just prefer to be explicit and specific about purchases. If I see I've run out of pasta sauce, I might want to scan the empty one to reoder it, because it's precise. I definitely wouldn't want to risk vagueness and inaccuracy just for the privilege of using an abstraction like saying "I'm out of pasta sauce" into a phone. What would that achieve anyway? Outsourcing the bit of your brain that says "we need more pasta sauce", so you've only got to worry about thinking "oh there's no pasta sauce"..? Scanning a barcode is simple and precise.

Re: Amazon Dash

#214

Post by johnny99 »

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.

The cuecat has had an interesting second life as a book scanner. Niche market, yes, but works great for the purpose.

Re: Amazon Dash

#215

Post by akramhussein »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #45
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…

Actually I think it is simpler than that, there was a time when the programmability of the phone was so much better than you could do in a cost effective embedded system that it was the right choice. Now you can put a 32 bit ARM Cortex M on a device for $3 and so spending on the plastic is more feasible.

You are probably right. I think some M3s have a DSP which could be leveraged for the voice portions. I'd imagine they also have a TI CC3000-like module with the whole TCP/IP stack to handle the comms. Maybe not necessarily the 3000, as they offer same functionality in larger sized modules for a lower cost. Further, I'd say TI also because of their SimpleLink system, which allows you to connect to Wi-Fi without entering SSIDs/passwords on a device. You'd just need to download the Amazon app to facilitate the initial connection if I understand it correctly.

Re: Amazon Dash

#216

Post by azernik »

mullingitover wrote: post #127
azernik wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I signed up for the free trial (because that's the only way to see what they have available for sale). Browsed the prices, immediately canceled the free trial. I wouldn't use it even if it were free, tacking on $299 to pay for overpriced groceries is a non-starter. Granted I live only a mile from a grocery store, so it's not a compelling proposition to cut grocery store trips out of my life for that price. However, t…

The other group is people living in cities for whom transporting groceries home is a serious burden. That's really the only context in which this makes economic sense for both the user and the supplier.

One possible example of the target market is my grandmother, living in a third-floor apartment in Haifa. She already uses a similar service, just less convenient - she has to go the grocery store, buy her groceries and take them to the register, and then order delivery at checkout.

Another target market is your standard techie with no car (e.g. me). In that case, the choices are either a car-share (whose convenience varies with distance to a car-share lot - in my case pretty high) or lugging stuff back by hand (convenience varies both with distance to the grocery store and with the number of hills in the way - in my case, I live on top of a gigantic hill). Even so, I think this is only worth it if the subscription cost is split between 2-4 people. I don't think this is for people with a car and a parking spot, but there are a lot of people who don't, even with a high income.

When I did the free trial, the prices weren't all that bad - generally if I shopped around I could find stuff within 5-10% of Safeway prices, and sometimes cheaper, and the convenience was amazing (for example, it also replaced my pharmacy/Target runs). Note, I did find a way to browse their selection before signing up - I just had to tell them what urban area I'm in.

Re: Amazon Dash

#218

Post by chunkyslink »

Nice try NSA!

Seriously though, it worries me that there are more and more 'listening devices' in my home.

We've seen what has happened recently with the NSA listening to calls. What is to stop the authorities getting a back door into all these devices and just recording everything?

Re: Amazon Dash

#219

Post by [deleted] »

chunkyslink wrote: post #218

Nice try NSA! Seriously though, it worries me that there are more and more 'listening devices' in my home. We've seen what has happened recently with the NSA listening to calls. What is to stop the authorities getting a back door into all these devices and just recording everything?

[deleted]

Re: Amazon Dash

#220

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]
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