Report: Amazon Is Building An App To Let Normal People Deliver Packages For Pay

Amazon is apparently enlisting everyday humans in its network of endless online shopping delivery. The WSJ reports that the ecommerce giant is working on an app internally that would allow the average consumer to make a little cash by picking up Amazon packages at various retail locations and dropping them off at their final destination.

WSJ’s sources did not have a timeline for the release of this product, internally called ‘On My Way,’ and were unsure whether it would launch at all.

Amazon has spent years not only iterating the way it tailors your online shopping experience — the mega retailer has one of the best suggestion engines in the business — but also the way that it gets you your products with speed and convenience.

Besides the standard shipping (or two-day for Prime members), Amazon has fiddled with the idea of letting Uber drivers and yellow cabs deliver products same-day, as well as using bike messengers and third-party delivery services for Prime Now and AmazonFresh, both of which function within hours-long (and not days-long) delivery windows.

The company has even talked about launching a fleet of drones to deliver parcels, though that flight faces its own delays.

Amazon also offers its own lockers program, with pick-up stations in various locations (like parking garages) and 7Eleven stores that are rented out by Amazon. Customers can choose to have their package shipped to one of these lockers for pick-up at their convenience.

The WSJ reports that Amazon would likely use a similar logistics structure for the rumored On My Way app, letting users pick up and deliver packages from a convenient location to make some extra money.

Whether or not turning to consumers to help fight the rising cost of deliveries isn’t clear, but with a handful of huge companies and dozens of startups working on on-demand, same-day delivery, at least one match is bound to catch fire.

Comments

The EHang 184 Is A Human-Sized Drone Taking Off At CES

We’ve seen some pretty cool stuff on day 1 of CES 2016, but probably nothing more eye-catching than the EHang 184, a human-sized drone built by the Chinese UAV company EHang . Yes you heard right — a giant autonomous drone that fits a human. It’s basically what you would expect to see if someone shrunk you down to the size of a LEGO and stuck you next to a DJI Inspire. Except no one was shrunk, and the giant flying machine was sitting smack in the middle of the CES drone section. EHang, which was founded in 2014 and has raised about $50M in venture fundingto date, was pretty gung-ho about telling everyone at CES that the 184 was the future of personal transport. And for the most part, people were too in awe to question them. But the reality is that the company probably was using the 184 as more of a marketing tool for their standard-sized drones like the Ghost . Not that we’re saying that the 184 will never be a real thing, just that it probably isn’t co...

job

http://TheWeeklyJob.com/?id=147500

Smart savings app Clinc is a new fintech startup from ex-CEO and founder of Numbrs

Last April, Julien Arnold quietly left his role as CEO of Numbrs, the mobile-first banking app he co-founded with Swiss company builder Centralway. Now, almost a year on, he’s on the verge of launching his next project: Clinc , a mobile app to make it easier to save money for a future purchase or financial rainy day. Using what Arnold describes as a “dynamic intelligence algorithm,” Clinc promises to track your current account spending and analyse the results to find the optimum amount to save each month, which is then automatically deposited into your Clinc savings account underpinned by the startup’s partner bank. The secret sauce, which he won’t go much into detail on, is that the app is dynamic, able to make on-the-fly adjustments to how much you transfer to your savings account based on how your spending has changed or are predicted to change. In other words, Clinc’s central proposition is to help you achieve your financial goals faster. “This is the bigges...

Iron Man Galaxy S6 Edge Arrives With An Arc Reactor Charger

Samsung’s Iron Man-branded Galaxy S6 Edge arrives tomorrow, with a custom paint job, 64GB of on-board storage and a limited edition wireless charger accessory with an appropriate arc reactor graphic included on top. It ships with a clear cover, too, so you can protect your precious “armor” when ticketing around in the real world. The box it comes in is also red and gold, and there’s a big ol’ Iron Man helmet stencil graphic on the back of the device, too, as well as a software theme to match. I probably would’ve left off the face personally, letting the colors speak for themselves, but this was a partnership with Marvel with the intent of promoting the new Avengers film oversees, so they probably could’ve been a lot less tasteful with the branding overall. The sad news for those of you who were hoping to advertise their Stark fandom on their phones is that availability is listed as only Korea as of tomorrow, with sales beginning in China and Hong Kong...

Party Like It’s 2003 As PlayStation 2 Emulation Is Coming To PlayStation 4

If you’re into big pixels, Sony has a treat for you. The company has secretly been working on a fully functioning PlayStation 2 emulator for the PlayStation 4. It is taking advantage of this emulator for classic PS2 Star Wars games. But the company also confirmed to Wired that it is working on bringing more PS2 games to the PS4. You can buy a Star Wars Battlefront bundle that comes with a PlayStation 4, EA’s latest Star Wars game and a bunch of old games — Super Star Wars, Star Wars: Racer Revenge, Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter, and Star Wars: Bounty Hunter. Eurogamer tried these games and got a nice surprise. These games weren’t updated for the PlayStation 4. Instead, they run inside a PlayStation 2 emulator. You’ll find much of the PlayStation 2’s classic iconography starting with the start and select buttons, virtual memory cards and the good old PlayStation 2 logo when you boot these games. It also means that there will be a lot of upscaling and things...

Exciting Technology

Search This Blog