HomeDelivery
Latest
Amazon Key flaw could let a courier disable your Cloud Cam
Amazon recently weirded out much of the internet when it unveiled its Key delivery service that lets its couriers open your home and deliver packages while you're away. A key part of that is the Cloud Cam security camera that confirms deliveries and shows that your house remains un-ransacked. Now, researchers from Rhino Security Labs have shown that it's possible, under rare circumstances, to hack the camera so that everything looks fine while someone takes all your stuff.
Amazon Key opens your home for indoor deliveries
Amazon's gone to a lot of effort to make its services as convenient as possible -- free delivery, lightning fast delivery, delivery from the sky (well, soon, probably) -- now it's eliminating the need for you to even be at home to receive your packages (or to have a designated safe place), because its couriers can now simply let themselves into your property.
Samsung goes big on smart fridges with 10 new models
Samsung must have done alright with its crazy WiFi-connected smart fridges last year, because it's launching six more in 2017, for a total of 10. That includes both three-door, four-door and four-door "flex" models with dual freezers (shown above). It's also updated the fridge's OS to Family Hub 2.0 with a new interface that lets everyone have a profile, complete with avatar. From there, you can share photos, calendars and handwritten memos on your fridge's giant 21.5-inch LED touchscreen. Voice control and entertainment apps like Pandora are on offer as well.
Walmart starts grocery delivery service in Denver, makes it easier to never leave home again (video)
Oh, boy. Local mom-and-pop shops in Denver aren't going to like this: Walmart's looking to increase pressure on local businesses by delivering groceries straight to your waiting arms. Yes, that includes fresh produce, as well as dry and frozen items, which will surely make workaholics (and shut-ins) out there happy. The Walmart To Go service has been shuttling perishable goods to people's doorsteps in San Francisco and San Jose for the past two years, but it's only now that Denver's getting the special treatment. If doing your grocery shop before 8am (to ensure same-day delivery) sounds like your way to buy bulk oats, feel free to register at Walmart To Go's website and pray you get picked for the closed beta. The bad news is that the big box chain has yet to greenlight its crowdsourcing delivery idea, so there's still no chance to make friends through mutual love of giant retail chains.
Drync touts itself as 'the Shazam for wine'
When you are listening to a song that you don't know, but really like, it's common to whip out the ol' iPhone, launch Shazam and find out the name of the tune. But what about a situation where you're drinking a bottle of wine at a restaurant and would like to know more about it or even buy a bottle of that specific brand and vintage? That's the idea behind Drync (free), a "wine image-recognition app" that's been around since 2009, but is re-launching today with a new focus on making over 30,000 wines available for home delivery in 41 states. Drync provides instant identification of more than 1.7 million different wines simply by snapping a photo of the label with your iOS device. The label -- which doesn't have to be on a wine bottle, so you can even snap an image of a label in a magazine or on a billboard -- runs through a sophisticated image-recognition algorithm and you're presented with information about the wine. Want ratings from other users or wine experts? They're available for a number of wines, and you can also purchase wines for delivery if that's allowed in your state. If the label you've imaged isn't in the Drync database -- for instance, a Montrachet 1978 from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti -- you can submit the label for a human to curate. Your wine-tasting activities can be shared with your buddies on Facebook or Twitter, and Drync says they'll soon be providing personalized and social recommendations.
