• GeekWire reports that the Amazon Key program - which uses a mobile app to allow people to access their homes via smart locks as well as keep an eye on their homes via security cameras - is going nationwide.
However, the part of the program that allows for in-home package delivery remains “restricted to select markets,” the story says.
It is all part of a broader strategy by Amazon, which last month “added the ability to turn on the camera via voice command with Alexa, get motion detection alerts through Echo devices and enable two-way audio to talk through the camera using an Echo Show or Echo Spot. Amazon also created a website where users can follow their live feeds from their desktops at work.”
• The Wall Street Journal reports that Amazon “is considering whether to use its Alexa virtual assistant to start a person-to-person payments feature, a move that would push the retailing giant into new competition with PayPal Holdings, Venmo and big banks’ payments efforts … Among the options being evaluated are ways in which consumers could tell Alexa to send money to a friend. The idea is still in the early stages, and the voice-activated device would likely need more information about customers’ bank accounts than it has now to execute such money transfers.”
However, the part of the program that allows for in-home package delivery remains “restricted to select markets,” the story says.
It is all part of a broader strategy by Amazon, which last month “added the ability to turn on the camera via voice command with Alexa, get motion detection alerts through Echo devices and enable two-way audio to talk through the camera using an Echo Show or Echo Spot. Amazon also created a website where users can follow their live feeds from their desktops at work.”
• The Wall Street Journal reports that Amazon “is considering whether to use its Alexa virtual assistant to start a person-to-person payments feature, a move that would push the retailing giant into new competition with PayPal Holdings, Venmo and big banks’ payments efforts … Among the options being evaluated are ways in which consumers could tell Alexa to send money to a friend. The idea is still in the early stages, and the voice-activated device would likely need more information about customers’ bank accounts than it has now to execute such money transfers.”
- KC's View:
