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Pizza Hut tests Amazon Locker-style 'cubbies' for carryout orders
It's not always as quick as you might like to pick up a pizza on the way home, but Pizza Hut might have a solution: borrow a page from the online shopping world. Its Hollywood restaurant (6660 Sunset Boulevard) has started testing Amazon Locker-like "cubbies" for carryout orders purchased through any method. Each cubby includes a display that shows your partial name as well as a lining that keeps your food hot and your drinks cold. You won't have to wait for someone at the counter -- once you've paid, you just double-tap the screen and grab your meal.
Just Eat made a 'magic wand' for ordering food
Just Eat, we need to talk. Your latest invention, a food-ordering "magic wand," is ridiculous. I get that you want to have some fun over the Christmas period — and somewhere, your marketing department is having a good chuckle — but you've gone too far. Enough is enough. First of all, is it meant for the kitchen or the bedroom? Actually, don't answer that. Then there's the operation. You have to download a separate app (ugh), login and make an order the old-fashioned way. Only then can you repeat this order — and nothing else — by waving the wand around like Merlin.
McDonald's tests mobile ordering on coastal elite
If you've ever thought that fast food wasn't fast enough, then it looks like McDonald's latest initiative has you covered. The takeout chain has begun trialling mobile ordering at restaurants in Monterey and Salinas, California. Hungry patrons will now be able to select their meal on the way to their nearest location for instant collection. The app will even use your GPS data to determine when your burgers start getting cooked, ensuring your food stays warm and fresh. When you arrive, you just pay through the app and grab that famous brown bag from the counter, drive-thru or curbside collection point.
Alexa offers voice-controlled takeout from Amazon Restaurants
At CES 2017, it's pretty much "Alexa this" and "Alexa that" as Amazon's voice assistant insinuates itself into cars, smartphones and refrigerators. Now the device works as a waiter of sorts, letting you place a takeout order from any of Amazon's affiliated restaurants. There are some limitations: You need to be an Amazon Prime member, and you can't order anything new -- it'll only let you repeat an order you've placed in the past.
Groupon's food delivery service brings discounts with every order
You're about to get a fresh alternative to internet-based restaurant delivery services like GrubHub and Seamless. Groupon has just launched the simply-titled Groupon To Go, an order-in service that focuses on (what else?) discounts for your food. The company promises that you'll get at least 10 percent cash back on every order, which could add up if you're ordering pizza every week. The offering is only available in Chicago right now, but there are over 500 included restaurants ranging from big chains like Subway to local eateries like Al's Beef and Ditka's Restaurant. And don't worry about waiting long to give it a shot -- Groupon is expanding the service later this year, with Austin and Boston among the early highlights. It'll eventually be available nationwide.
Amazon launches a restaurant takeout and delivery service
Amazon's already shown that it's intent on replacing your grocery store, with same-day deliveries and its Dash scanner, but now it wants to help at those times when you don't want to be in the kitchen. As part of its latest Amazon Local expansion, the internet retailer has launched a new Takeout & Delivery service, allowing customers to browse available local restaurants and order a freshly-cooked meal for pickup or have it delivered to their door. If you've used Grubhub or Seamless (before they merged) then you know the drill.
Google's data-transferring tool gets a shiny new interface
Google already makes it very simple for you to pull your data from some of its many services, via the Takeout transfer tool on the web. Up until today, however, Google Takeout wasn't necessarily pleasing to the eye, despite being extremely useful at letting users extract their archives. As a way to alleviate that, the search giant has quietly given Takeout a design makeover, bringing the user interface more in line with its other products, like Gmail and Google Drive. Still, it's not all about the visuals here -- Google Takeout is now also more thorough, allowing you to pull specific data from each service. For example, with Google Play Books, you can choose to include select files, rather than only having the option to download all at once. Just don't go too crazy creating archives, since they do take up space from your Drive's free storage allotment.
Square's new app lets you pre-order food and drink before picking it up
Square is one of those apps you may have heard of, but have no idea what it does -- because it mostly sells point-of-sale software and readers to businesses. It has just quietly expanded its consumer presence with Square Order, however, which looks like the customer-based app used in conjunction with Square Pickup for merchants. We says "looks like" because the app has quietly slipped into the iOS and Android (Beta) Play stores without any official announcement. Using it seems simple enough: you locate a restaurant, cafe or shop (Whole Foods, for instance) from a list of Square Pickup merchants. Then, you can place a pre-order, pay for it and receive a notification from the app when it's ready. That'll put it into competition with apps like PayPal's wallet and GrubHub, though so far Order is only available in New York and San Francisco (more cities are promised soon). We've reached out for more info, but if you're in one of those 'burgs, grab it here. Update: We've just learned that Square Order is really a phasing out of Square Wallet. Head on over to this post to learn more about it.
PSA: Download your Google Reader data by July 15th
Right on schedule, Google's popular Reader site has gone offline. Visitors are now greeted with an apology message of sorts, along with a warning that data will be permanently deleted after 12PM PST on July 15th. In the meantime, you can use Google Takeout to download a copy of your subscription info, including lists you follow, starred items and notes. In fact, now might be an excellent time to snag data from other sites -- you never know when Mountain View will opt to "sunset" your other beloved services, too.
Google Takeout now liberating Blogger and Google+ Pages
Google Takeout's export functions have slowly extended their reach from profiles and personal contacts to heftier material, such as all our videos. However much we've been using that data portability, Google is eliminating what few gaps are left in its coverage: the company's Data Liberation Front has expanded Takeout to preserve both Blogger content as well as Google+ Pages. Web denizens can cherry-pick just the blogs or Pages they want if a whole-enchilada backup is too much. Regardless of how large a safety net we need, the new options are ready and waiting at the source links.
Google gives users an easy out, adds YouTube to Takeout data transfer tool
Breaking up with a web-based ecosystem is hard to do, especially when you have several gigabytes of data invested in a specific platform. However, things just got a whole lot easier for disgruntled vloggers. Google recently added YouTube to its Takeout data migration service, which now gives users the ability to pull all of their uploaded videos from the company's servers in a single stroke. This groovy tool should definitely come in handy when you're busy shopping around your latest foreign film to different movie studios. In addition to being extremely easy to use, the service will also send an email letting you know that your download has finished. Simply set it and forget it!
Google Takeout comes to Voice, get your SMS and voicemail to go (video)
Those militant leftists at the Data Liberation Front are at it again, bringing their tool for fomenting revolution, Google Takeout, to Google Voice. With the information emancipating service, users will be able to download their call history, voicemail and text messages, recorded calls, and even greetings. All audio is delivered in MP3 format, while SMS is spit out as an HTML file. Check out the video below for a brief, if not entirely informative, announcement from the guerrilla data warriors.
Google Takeout promises radical left wing-themed data extraction for Circles, more (video)
A team of khaki-clad Google engineers, calling itself the Data Liberation Front, has taken up the cause of freeing your data from the restrictive confines of El Goog's servers. Google Takeout, as the program has been billed, rips your various stashes of data from Buzz, Circles, Picasa, Contacts, and your Google Profile, and quickly bundles them in a zip file for download. The resulting booty is yours to do with as you choose. Takeout was announced the same day Google's latest social initiative sprung to life, offering an alternative to the notoriously hard to transfer data of its obvious competitor. But we're sure that was just a coincidence. Right? A hilariously nerdy promo video awaits you after the break.
