Summary: News: Amazon Patents “Anticipatory” Shipping — To Start Sending Stuff Before You’ve Bought It Amazon has filed a patent for a shipping system designed to cut delivery times by predicting what buyers are going to buy before they buy it — and shipping products in their general direction, or even right to their door, before the sales click even (or ever) falls. The patent, which was filed in August 2012 and granted December 24 last year, describes a method for what Amazon calls “anticipatory shipping” — with one pre-shipping scenario (of the multitudes detailed) being as follows: …a method may include packaging one or more items as a package for eventual shipment to a delivery address, selecting a destination geographical area to which to ship the package, shipping the package to the destination geographical area without completely specifying the delivery address at the time of shipment, and while the package is in transit, completely specifying the delivery address for the package. The patent also goes on to discuss in detail various scenarios for “speculatively shipping” packages to destinations and how to re-route items based on proximity to potential customers — and even how packages might remain in near continuous transit on trucks until a customer makes a purchase. And in those instances when the demand prediction algorithm fails, as well it must, the patent suggests Amazon could deliver the package anyway — as a gift to someone who hasn’t actually clicked to buy it yet, but who, its data analysis suggests, might quite like it — i.e. if the cost of returning/rerouting the item exceeds the cost of paying a surprise visit to a pre-customer. Which could either be a great surprise, or hideously inappropriate — depending on how good an oracle Amazon’s algorithm turns out to be. Inappropriate like delivering a DIY Will pack to someone who has already died, say. Or kids toys to bereaved parents. Anticipatory algorithms are going to have to navigate plenty of human pitfalls if they’re not to end up clanging on the doorbell. http://techcrunch.com/2014/01/18/amazon-pre-ships/ Animated iWatch Concept Is the Most Realistic You've Ever Seen Although Apple remains tight-lipped about any plans to release a wearable device, the persistent rumors and concept mock-ups continue to stir excitement among fans and industry analysts alike. The latest conceptual take on the rumored iWatch is a video animation that presents an extremely realistic look at how the device might work if it becomes a real product. Created by San Francisco-based professional interface designer Todd Hamilton, this new iWatch concept fuses the sleek design of the Nike FuelBand with the minimalist interface treatments of Apple's iOS 7. Hamilton says the initial inspiration for the concept came from a similar mock-up that cropped up late last year. “It was an impressive concept that got a lot of people excited including myself,” Hamilton wrote in a blog post accompanying the video. “However, it had a major flaw: The orientation of the interface made it impossible to use…I wanted to retain a slim form factor like the FuelBand and incorporate familiar UI components from iOS 7." The new concept not only makes the concept iWatch easier to use from a practical standpoint by giving the interface a vertical orientation, but also updates the operating system in order to give viewers a better vision of what the operation of the device might really look like. While Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, wears a Nike FuelBand and has dropped hints about new product categories http://mashable.com/2014/01/22/animated-iwatch-concept/ Rumors of New “Nintendo Fusion” Consoles Have Sprung up Amid Dismal Wii U Sales News As for the rumor itself, Nintendo News, who also made it very clear to take all of this as rumor for the time being, is reporting that Nintendo’s next portable and home console are currently being called the Fusion DS and Fusion Terminal, respectively.
