Amazon Dash Button

[walkitout]

h/t BI, and Nate over at Inks, Bits & Pixels h/t Zatz Not Funny and the FCC (links at the bottom)

Where was I?

Oh, yeah. Okay. WiFi only button device, stick it to your washing machine or whatever, press it when you notice you need more detergent, it is part of the Internet Of Things and basically orders you up a batch of your default via Amazon. You get an email asking if you meant to do that to deal with the playful child problem (or bumped it by accident, presumably).

Discussion in the comments at Nate's blog is basically, who needs this? Twitterverse is full of gee I thought this was an April Fool's Joke.

I have a theory about what is going on here. When I was a child, my father stocked up on things like paper towel, toilet paper, tissue boxes. There was an exposed beam between the two bays of our two car garage and he put shelves on either side the whole length and that's where they went. When I got my own place years later, I had a storage unit (basically a locked closet in the condo basement/garage level) and I found places that would give me case discounts on similar items and I kept back stock also (there's a funny story about Y2K preparation that other people were doing and I just laughed, because this was my normal way of doing things. Anyway.). Now, my husband goes to Costco and we have metal shelving in the garage with shelf stable food and paper products. Do I need a Dash Button? No more than I need trepanation.

But just because I am part of a network of control freak-y, hoarding people obsessed with domestic order (why yes, about 80% of my ancestry is Dutch; why do you ask?) does not mean everyone is. And I can easily imagine a Dash button as an IoT implementation of domestic Just In Time inventory control that does not require the user or users to co-ordinate supply orders. See what I did there? Basically, the Dash button means you don't have to talk to your spouse any more to tell them you are out of X and could they please order some more -- and you never have to worry about them yelling at you for forgetting to tell them you were out of X before they went to Costco to buy stuff.

I have no idea if this is going to take off or not. But I will say this. I sure do love that I've got an app that controls my garage door, and another one to control the up and down stairs thermostats. Those made my life better, even tho I did not need them. For all I know, the Dash button will make someone else's life better. We'll find out.

http://the-digital-reader.com/2015/03/31/amazon-launches-the-dash-button-a-one-click-solution-for-shopping/

http://the-digital-reader.com/2015/03/30/did-amazons-next-gadget-clear-the-fcc/

http://zatznotfunny.com/2015-03/amazons-next-gadget-from-lab126/

http://fccid.net/document.php?id=2560779#axzz3VsurmuuK

Comments

[jinasphinx.livejournal.com]

The Gen-Yers in my office were both amused and impressed with the Dash button a few days ago. I'm sorta like, eh, between my husband stocking up on staples and me having Amazon subscribe-and-save in place already for a bunch of stuff (and having figured out what the appropriate delivery intervals are), I feel like we've got that all covered already. But half of my coworkers are living in the land of paying $1800 for a one-bedroom, so ordering by the case would be a really bad idea for them.

Just in time inventory can be driven by limited space

[walkitout]

And a one bedroom is definitely limited space. Geez.