The ridiculous world of single-use IoT devices
The ridiculous world of single-use IoT devices1
The rise of IoT comes with all the promise of self-driving cars, smartwatches that do everything from track your heartbeat to acting as your credit card, and homes that can be entirely controlled with your smartphone from anywhere in the world. However, this isn’t where many brands are taking the technology. There is also a rise of single-use IoT devices that only do one thing, and that one thing is only really useful in occasional circumstance.
It’s actually difficult to find many cases of single-use IoT devices in today’s ecosystem.
Even wristwatches which used to only tell time are now responsible for delivering your text messages, tracking your steps and heartbeat, updating you on the score of the game your favorite team is playing, and any number of other things. The same can even be said for programmable lights which can be programmed to blink when you receive a tweet or turn on when you are within a mile of home.
Enter the Amazon Dash Button
Perhaps the biggest example of this category is the Amazon Dash Button. We’ve written about this device before, both in how its original purpose takes the concept of IoT too far and how its extended purpose could make IoT technologies more useful.
At first glance, these buttons would appear to be an April Fool’s joke by the retail giant. How ridiculous would it be to have buttons attached to various places in your home that order things on your behalf?
These buttons are purchasable for $ 4.99 that do one thing: add a single item to your Amazon cart. Once you make your first purchase with the button, you are given a $ 4.99 credit. This makes the button essentially free, as long as you can prove that you’re willing to use it to restock on things like laundry detergent or macaroni and cheese.
But in reality, do we really need a dedicated button in our home to resupply our cache of Slim Jim meat sticks? Do we need a button inside our cabinets or attached to our appliances that do nothing more than add single items to our cart on Amazon?
The case for convenience
If there is one argument to be made in favor of these gimmicky devices, it’s convenience. In a household that uses Amazon as its primary source for groceries and other goods that can survive a trip through the mail, this simple button is an added convenience to remind you that you are running low on something when you might otherwise forget.
Instead of whipping out your phone and adding a box of Tide to your cart, you just push a button. It’s convenient, and that makes you more likely to buy.
For Amazon, these buttons are great. It makes Amazon a more logical choice for consumers that could otherwise drive down to their local grocery store for these goods. From the moment someone brings a Play-Doh button into their home, it’s safe to say that Amazon will be their source of Play-Doh from that moment forward.
This makes these single-use devices like the Dash Button a convenience for the consumer and a sale-generating tool for the retailer.
Security and single-use IoT Devices
Then, of course, there is the security concern that comes up every time an IoT device is introduced to a network. That concern being that with each new system to add to a network, your susceptibility to intrusion increases.
Thankfully for Dash Button users, this isn’t a big issue with this particular type of device as it doesn’t do anything more than send an HTTP call with its unit ID. That HTTP call tells Amazon to add one of that item to the consumer’s cart. If someone listening in to network traffic really wanted to use this HTTP call against the owner of the network, they might add several thousand of that item to their cart. Of course, this could also happen if a child were to wander over to the button and playfully mash on it repeatedly.
As for other concerns such as open ports and two-way communication leading to someone accessing other systems in your home, it’s not a huge problem with the Amazon Dash Button – at least not in its original programming. Unless the Dash Button communicates directly with those other systems, or receives commands itself, it isn’t a particularly big security concern on the network.
Where security becomes a concern is actually with the more complicated devices. Devices that receive commands from the cloud and execute those commands, such as the Philips Hue smart bulbs which have been found to be susceptible to malicious attack in the past, rendering them useless unless the owner disconnects them entirely from the network and uses them like a regular light bulb.
This isn’t to say that Amazon’s Dash Buttons are entirely safe from malicious foul play. Just that their digital reach is far shorter, making them a poor target.
Getting more out of Amazon’s Dash Button
Clearly, the Dash button concept can be used to do incredible things like open all the blinds in a room, change the lighting to match, and fire up your television and/or stereo simultaneously. This is cool, and exactly what a proverbial IoT red button should be used for.
It is also one of the reasons that Amazon finally released an IoT version of its Dash Button, giving developers the opportunity to put this button concept to more productive use. Now, this little hackable button could be used like the electronic ignition of a car, firing up your coffee pot or turning on your lights for you.
Indeed, the real value of this device is in its potential. Sure you can order goodies with it, but if you could also use it to do things that provide actual value to your life, why not?
For all the gimmick and silliness that buying a button to refill your supply of Nerf darts, Amazon really did create a concept around a uniquely useful single-purpose networked device. While it might not be the revolutionary hot new item in retail, it could have a lasting impact as developers find new ways to put this simple product to good use.
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