Get your groceries delivered to your door with Amazon Dash

It seems a little bit like something from a retro-futurist’s dream: Tell a small handheld device your grocery list, and it’ll go ahead and prepare an order that will be delivered to your door.  It sounds a little like a smartphone, but it isn’t: It’s Amazon Dash, a new way to order groceries through Amazon Fresh. Amazon Dash is about the size of a remote control, and it features both a microphone and a barcode scanner, which allows you to either speak the name of the item you need or scan the barcodes for whatever you need.

Amazon.com Inc launched a new product named Amazon Dash on Friday that allows the user to add groceries and household goods to their shopping lists using the company’s AmazonFresh service. A black-and-white hand-held wand-shaped remote-control features a microphone, speaker as well as a bar-code reader and links directly to the user’s AmazonFresh account. However, the device is available only for users of the AmazonFresh which currently operates exclusively in Southern California, San Francisco and Seattle. The device is free during the trial period, according to the product’s website. However, signing up for Amazon Dash is by invitation only while the AmazonFresh service is currently available only Southern California, San Francisco and Seattle.