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Uber and Lyft let drivers use their own cars to provide rides for customers who hail a car using a mobile app. Now it looks like Amazon may be working on a similar service, except instead of letting participants use their own cars to taxi passengers from place to place, Amazon would let anyone become a delivery person.
This would allow Amazon to have packages delivered to your door without relying on UPS, the US Postal Service, or other traditional delivery providers. That could allow for cheaper delivery costs, faster delivery times, or weekend or evening deliveries in areas where those options might not otherwise be available.
On the other hand, there’s a lot that could go wrong: would users trust random individuals to deliver their packages? What’s to keep those individuals from walking off with the packages? And would this actually be any cheaper or more convenient than existing solutions?
Here’s a roundup of tech news from around the web.
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- Report: Amazon is considering a sort of Uber for package delivery
Sources tell the newspaper that Amazon is considering launching its courier app and service by partnering with local bricks-and-mortar retail stores where the items would be held for pickup by delivery people. But there’s a chance the whole idea could be scrapped before it ever sees the light of day. [WSJ] - EzeeCube stackable media center is now shipping to backers of last year’s Indiegogo campaign
Nearly a year after the crowdfunding campaign ended, the EzeeCube is now shipping to folks who helped fund the stackable, modular media center system. [Indiegogo] - MatchStick streaming stick gain support for local play & ad-hoc modes
The retail version of the MatchStick won’t ship until later this year, but if you’ve got a developer unit that shipped to crowfdunding campaign backers last year, now you can play content from local services and create ad-hoc networks to connect to a TV without an internet connection. [Kickstarter] - Pushbullet’s new Portal app makes it easy to share files between a PC and Android device
Portal is a new standalone app from the makers of Pushbullet, and it’s designed to be a simpler alternative for folks that just one to move files from a PC to a phone or tablet over a local WiFi network. [Android Police] - Asus Zenfone 2 with 128GB of storage hits Taiwan June 18th
Now you have the option of buying the phone with 16GB, 64GB, or 128GB of storage (in select markets). Or you can save some money and just buy the 64GB version and insert a microSD card. [Juggly] - PlayStation Vue will soon let customers pay for (some) channels individually
Don’t want to pay for channels you don’t watch? Sony’s internet TV service will let you pay for for some channels individually… but this isn’t necessarily the a la carte service you were hoping for. Instead of paying just for the channels you want, you’ll still have to pony up cash for a base fee and then pay extra for specific channels such as Showtime, Fox Soccer Plus, or Machinima. It feels a lot like traditional cable service… and it’s priced a lot like traditional cable too. [Gizmodo] - LastPass discloses that some data was breached, suggests changing your master password, 2-factor authentication
If you’re a LastPass user you’ve probably seen this by now, but the company says that attackers managed to get some user data, but that it shouldn’t be easy to crack any passwords. That said, now’s probably a good time to change your master password. [LastPass] - Facebook Moments app is designed for privately sharing photos with a group of friends
Ever take photos that you want to share with a group of friends, but which you don’t want everyone to see? This app could make that a little simpler. [Facebook] - Asus never planned to buy HTC, both companies agree
There was a report making the rounds recently that Asus had internally discussed the idea of buying HTC and had dismissed it. Nobody ever said the company had actually approached HTC, so it seems kind of funny that HTC is now denying merger talks… but the internet loves rumors almost as much as it loves cats. [Droid Life] - Vessel’s subscription-based video app hits Android (beta)
Want early access to content from top YouTube creators? Willing to pay $2.99 per month for it? Now you can do that on an Android device as well as on the web or through an iOS app. [Google Play]
I do something similar with auto parts right now. I goto various dealerships and get parts to take to customers. I guess the drivers insentive to deliver the parts is to get paid
Sounds like, if Amazon is sponsoring this, they probably intend to use it. In that case, they probably would assume the risks associated with drivers stealing packages. I imagine there’s probably going to be some kind of “trust” level that drivers would earn, and Amazon would probably be able to use their existing subscriber data to identify trustworthy drivers for the initial startup of the service. Maybe they’ll only allow drivers who have been Prime subscribers for a certain amount of time, using good purchasing and delivery history as initial “goodwill” and then letting the “trust” system build from there.
Who knows, but if anyone has the clout and data to pull this off, it’s Amazon.
Yeah, there would have to be some kind of vetting and background checks to ensure that applicants are going to be trustworthy. There is also the incentive of getting a regular paycheck to keep most people honest. Amazon wouldn’t do it unless they can guarantee all but a very few packages will be delivered on time.