You’ll Be Able Buy Cars on Amazon Next Year
Need a new one Hyundai? Just ask Alexa.
This week, the Korean automaker announced that it would begin working with Amazon has sell some of its vehicles on the gargantuan e-commerce site. Hyundais purchased on Amazon will not in fact be delivered in a very large box, but buyers will have the choice of having their new car delivered or picking it up at a local dealership. Sales will begin in 2024 and other brands will likely launch on Amazon after Hyundai’s debut.
It’s the latest move in the growing trend Amazonification car purchase. Online car sales are an important, if perhaps natural, progression of the permanent online market. Although it’s becoming more and more common to buy electric vehicles online, the practice of shopping for a new car on the web has really caught on. during the pandemic, when some companies offered the option of having the car delivered directly to your door shortly after clicking the Buy button. Now, having vehicles available on one of the largest e-commerce sites will likely make the prospect of one-click purchases even more appealing. Just know that Jeff Bezos probably won’t let you haggle.
Here are some other consumer tech news stories from this week.
Sonos releases… something
His bonemanufacturer of all kinds of speakers and audio equipment, has a new product coming next year. It is not known exactly what the device will be, but in a income report Published this week, Sonos CEO Patrick Spence said the company plans to release its first entry in a “multi-billion dollar category” in the second half of next year.
Previous leaks have indicated that the company could potentially move into the Headphone game. This could be a big step forward for Sonos, which until now has focused only on connected speakers and amplifiers. The same sources who broke the news to Helmet also revealed that the company is considering laying off some of its workforce, which could be either because the company is having trouble moving its equipment, or to the fact that the layoffs are simply the thing For big tech companies TO DO these days.
Hang tight
Inventor Simone Giertz left the building shitty robots to create useful devices that you probably don’t even realize you need. Its online store Yet (a phonetic spelling of how his last name is pronounced) features an LED-powered calendar and a ring with a built-in Phillips screwdriver. Giertz’s latest invention is the Coat hinge—a metal hanger that folds on itself to take up less space. This is a clever solution for people with small closets or minimal space for hanging clothes. There is also the option to purchase a set of hangers on a custom rod that can be resized to fit a variety of spaces. The rod even has grooves to space clothes well. Giertz announced the product on Instagram.
The Hinger is being funded through a Kickstarter campaign and will eventually be sold in Giertz’s Yetch store. We generally don’t recommend Kickstarter projects here. Too often, what you paid for long ago never shows up. Or if it does, the final product doesn’t live up to the initial promise. But the campaign has already far exceeded its objective. And Giertz, who appeared on the cover of CABLEhas a proven track record in producing cool and useful gadgets.
Inside Mirai
One day in 2016, the internet crashed. A malicious tool called Mirai enabled a massive denial-of-service attack that took advantage of thousands of connected smart home devices to overload servers supporting some of the largest sites online. Netflix, Spotify, Twitter, PayPal, Slack and even WIRED all went down, causing chaos across the web. This left cybersecurity researchers in shock. It also made the FBI sit up and take notice.
It turns out that Mirai is the creation of three young hackers, all in their teens or barely 20 years old. This week on the Gadget Lab podcast, Senior Editor Andy Greenberg joins the show to talk about how he got the three hackers who created Mirai to tell their story for the first time in the latest WIRED. cover story.
