Remember Amazon’s Dash Button? The little button allows users to place an Amazon order for a particular product with one click; there are branded versions for products like laundry detergent or mac and cheese. A new dash button links up to AWS IoT, the Cloud infrastructure service from Amazon Web Services, and allows developers to customize what they do with it.
“You can code the button's logic in the cloud to configure button clicks to count or track items, call or alert someone, start or stop something, order services, or even provide feedback,” Amazon wrote in the initial announcement.
It communicates with AWS IoT, AWS Lambda, Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon SNS and many other Amazon Web Services without needing device-specific code and can also connect to third-party APIs like Netflix, Twitter, Facebook or Slack.
(Image credit: Amazon)The IoT button requires a Wi-Fi connection and an AWS IoT certificate and private key. Once there, the button can be programmed to respond to a single click, double click or long press and can publish any particular message to any AWS service.
It’s a tiny little IoT hub that can be used for a lot of different things depending on what the user chooses to have it communicate with, and at $19.95, it isn’t devastatingly expensive to pick up and try out. It is currently in a limited release and requires an account with Amazon Web Services.
