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Amazon Dash Button

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Re: Amazon Dash Button

#551
post #30

Not sure why there's so much doubt about itss use. This is amazing for things like detergent. When I run out of detergent, I don't want to add it to shopping list. I don't want to remember when to buy. I just want it outside my door before I run out! This applies to any item that I don't feel like buying but have to buy regularly.

I'd hit that button when down to the last few beers and have a carton of something interesting delivered. Many use cases. In offices too.

Re: Amazon Dash Button

#552
Eventually these buttons may be on the boxes themselves somehow if there was a way for a new box to read from a master device in the house and know which account it was tied to?

Re: Amazon Dash Button

#553
post #505

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

You are right, I guess I've only read the top few comments, and read other comments from people that said "HN didn't like Dropbox". Thanks for correcting me.

Re: Amazon Dash Button

#554

My 2 year old and 5 year old will be clicking this button like crazy. I'll come home one day and find 20 boxes of Tide and Toilet paper and a bill for $900. "Button! Must Click it! What does it do? I don't know! Click it again!"

They seem to have thought of that: "Unless you elect otherwise, Dash Button responds only to your first press until your order is delivered"

Re: Amazon Dash Button

#555

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.

Actually, it's about a vendor making sure you buy their brand (again) when you need to fill up instead of going to the store and looking at the 50 choices in the detergent aisle one more time.

Really? Lots of people regularly switching their detergent?

Re: Amazon Dash Button

#556
post #477

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seems like a pretty solvable behavioral problem. I hesitate to recommend using some todo application since todo apps have turned into kind of a joke in the last few years, but.. maybe try using a todo app?

Why use a todo app that requires me to grab my phone, unlock, start an app and enter a todo item, when I could instead just press a button that'll be right in front of me at the moment I notice I'll need more of some product soon?

IMHO Todo apps on phones are useless for this reason.

If I cannot check a list in 2 seconds of pulling out whatever said list is stored on, I am done.

I miss my old Palm. One push of the task list button and I could see what I needed to do next.

Re: Amazon Dash Button

#557

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a neat quote. I read it in Harper's back in 1996 and it has really stuck with me. I feel like it describes some of my days pretty well. But another part of me thinks he's writing from a very privileged position, and doesn't (want to) recognize it.

Did I miss some huge event when going out to buy an enveloped is being in a privileged position?

Having copious free time has always been a privileged position. The extent to which you can waste time is a direct expressino of privilege.

Re: Amazon Dash Button

#558

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with what you are saying, but my effective tax rate this year in California was ~40%. All of the above benefits for an additional 20% sounds like a bargain.

You wouldn't get all of the above benefits with our government, for the additional 20%. The US has an extremely inefficient government fiscally. You might get properly funded roads; that is if they don't squander it between the time they lie and promise to use it for that and when it comes time to do road repair.

> The US has an extremely inefficient government fiscally.

I saw this old blog post recently, supporting your assertion: https://pedestrianobservations.wordpress.com/2011/05/16/us-r...

Basically, underground rail construction in US costs much more per kilometer than in other countries, and people in the comment section claim that the same holds true for other types of infrastructure construction, like bridges and highways.

Re: Amazon Dash Button

#559
While this rendition of such a concept seems... odd, I can picture something similar on a more flexible scale with, say, a cheap e-Ink-based touchscreen (or maybe a column of physical buttons to the left or right of the screen) tablet of sorts dedicated to being a sort of household ordering kiosk; just preload it with the sorts of products you might need for a particular room, then set and forget. When you need to restock on something, just press the button.

For example, in my bathroom, I'd load up my preferred choices of, say, soap, shampoo, hand soap, toilet paper, toilet bowl cleaner, toothpaste, etc. onto this cheap tablet, mount it somewhere in my bathroom (maybe on a wall somewhere near the sink or something), and forget about it until I realize I'm nearly out of shampoo, at which point I'll hit the "Head & Shoulders" button on my little bathroom kiosk and Amazon will have a bottle of seleniumy alien-invasion-stopping goodness delivered to my front door within 2 business days.

My laundry room would then have a similar little e-Ink kiosk loaded with options for detergent, dryer sheets, and the various cleaning supplies I store in there. The kitchen's kiosk would have buttons for things like dishwasher gel, soap, and some commonly-purchased food items like Top Ramen and Deschutes porter and glass-bottle Mountain Dew.

Basically, I can see a future where such a concept of integrating restocking with day-to-day activities can be reality, and while these Dash buttons ain't perfect, they're a step in the right direction in ways that current smartphone-centric methods can't easily replicate.

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