Amazon Announces New AWS IoT Button

Push buttons can make your life a lot easier and also help you spend more than you probably would otherwise. This week, Amazon has added one more push button to its collection, and it might be the best of them all.

Listed for sale on its site, the customizable AWS IoT Buttons is one of the latest and most useful additions to the network of Internet of Things, according to latest report on lighthousenewsdaily.com.

It was launched as part of the Dash buttons product line that allows customers to order products such as toilet paper, pet food, or tampons by simply pressing an internet-connected physical button.

The concept behind the Dash buttons was to provide customers with an easier refill option. All you have to do is buy the little buttons and you stick them wherever you store the product – inside the cupboard, on the washing machine.

Whenever you run low on supplies, you simply tap the button and— voilà—your order has been placed. At the moment, Amazon offers more than 100 different buttons, but the new addition

opens a whole new push-button world.

The new AWS IoT buttons – which will be sold at $19.95 starting May 15 – are marketed by Amazon as “a way for developers to learn how to use the company’s various cloud services.” This offer includes the “IoT” option that powers Internet of Things devices.

According to the company’s website, the buttons can “unlock or start a car, open your garage door, call a cab, call your spouse, track the use of common household chores, medications or products, or remotely control your home appliances.”

In fact, the possibilities are endless, but some of them might not be as useful as marketed. At the same time, Amazon didn’t talk about allowing non-programmers to create their own buttons, or even enabling companies to offer their own Dash buttons.

However, the giant e-retailer is not the only one thinking of ways to simplify things. The startup IFTTT (the acronym for “if this, then that”) makes it possible for people to create icons on their phones – not physical buttons – that have a single purpose.

For example, you can design an icon that you can tap and automatically send your spouse a text with the words “running late.” Amazon’s Dash Button will soon be one of the many products that make up the push-button future of tech.