Out of all of the criticisms of Dash this has to be the dumbest one I've heard. If you don't want them where people can see them... don't put them there.
...
All "hidden"... but also right where they need to be so that when you notice you're running low on something you can just hit the button. Simple.
No no no, you're doing it all wrong, you're supposed to stick them all next to your doorbell, by the front door, so you can represent for the brands you like, and the various religious and political proselytizers who stop by during the day, along with your letter carrier and UPS/FedEx representatives, can make sure you don't run low on anything. Then it'll always be a fun surprise to see what shows up.
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Blindly ordering stuff from Amazon without price-shopping is exactly the opposite of the business model that made them successful in the first place ("Wow, this book is so much cheaper on here than in the bookstore!! That's definitely worth the shipping wait!"). Unfortunately, this may be the model they move towards in the long run ("Well it might not be the best price, but it's the most convenient way to get it.")
Sometimes, for some people, the convenience of taking care of something
right now is worth a little extra expense. I expect Amazon isn't looking for everything to go this way so much as seeing a new potential market (uh, not market in terms of product but in terms of situation) that they can service, to their advantage. The website will still be the path 95% of the time. And my first order (and numerous subsequent orders), in 1996, wasn't "wow, this book is cheaper online", it was "hey, I can finally get these half dozen specialized books that elicited blank stares from the personnel at the local stores".
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Also: if you're just in it for the tech Amazon makes a variant of the button just for that:
https://www.amazon.com/AWS-IoT-Button-Limited-Programmable/dp/B01C7WE5WM/
This is awesome, thanks. There's also some useful bits in the Q&A section (if you believe the answers provided by people on the Internet), that the battery is good for about 1000 button presses (about 8 years worth of pressing it every third day - great for Amazon's use case of ordering things, not as good for using it as an IoT light switch), and it does sound like the battery is permanently attached.
Ooh, turns out Amazon has recently substantially revised the innards (see
New Amazon Dash Button Teardown), and newer ones have the battery mounted in a holder - easier to replace if you've broken the device open to experiment - and now have bluetooth capability (moving away from ultrasonic for setup?).
[doublepost=1472668502][/doublepost]I want an Amazon Dash Button that orders more Amazon Dash Buttons.