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Need Goldfish? Nerf Darts? Amazon Adds Dozens of New Dash Buttons

Amazon also today announced some handy new features for Alexa.

 & Angela Moscaritolo Managing Editor, Consumer Electronics

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Believe it or not, Amazon's Dash Button idea is working out.

The online retail giant says Dash Button orders have grown 70 percent over the last three months, and it's now seeing two orders every minute from the little devices, which let you re-order things you always use — like paper towels, laundry detergent, coffee, and water — with a simple press.

Given this success, Amazon is, naturally, expanding its lineup of Dash Buttons today with more than 50 new additions along with two new button categories: toys and musical equipment. New additions include: Pepperidge Farm Goldfish Crackers, Nerf, Mentos, Play-DOH, FIJI Water, Clif Bar, Campbell's Soup, Cascade, Dial Liquid Hand Soap, Trident, Lavazza, V8 Vegetable Juice, Puffs, Quilted Northern, and Hubert's Lemonade.

"With Dash Button, customers don't have to worry about running out of everyday essentials whether that's guitar strings for musicians or Nerf darts and PLAY-DOH for kids," Amazon said.

With these new additions, Prime members now have more than 150 Dash Buttons to choose from, up from 29 in 2015. Each button will set you back $4.99, but they're essentially free as Amazon will give you the fiver back after your first button purchase.

Don't worry about junior stocking up on Nerf darts without your knowledge. Each time you press an Amazon Dash button, an alert is sent to your phone, where you can confirm or reject the order.

Meanwhile, Amazon also today announced some handy new features for Alexa, the cloud-based voice service that powers its Echo speakers. The company has "completely redesigned" the skills section of the Alexa app to help you more easily discover what Alexa can do. You can now browse skills by categories such as "Smart Home" and "Lifestyle," as well as apply additional search filters, and easily access previously enabled skills via the "Your Skills" section.

Plus, you can now enable an Alexa skill with just your voice — simply say "Alexa, enable Jeopardy!" or "Alexa, enable NBC News," for instance, rather than adding it within the app.

Amazon says that "tens of thousands of developers" are building skills for Alexa. The voice assistant now boasts more than 1,400 skills, including the ability to hail you a ride with Lyft, a feature that just went live today, track your flight, add events to your Google calendar, dim your lights, keep tabs on your fitness, and pay your bills.

About Our Expert

Angela Moscaritolo

Angela Moscaritolo

Managing Editor, Consumer Electronics

My Experience

I'm PCMag's managing editor for consumer electronics, overseeing an experienced team of analysts covering smart home, home entertainment, wearables, fitness and health tech, and various other product categories. I have been with PCMag for more than 10 years, and in that time have written more than 6,000 articles and reviews for the site. I previously served as an analyst focused on smart home and wearable devices, and before that I was a reporter covering consumer tech news. I'm also a yoga instructor, and have been actively teaching group and private classes for nearly a decade. 

Prior to joining PCMag, I was a reporter for SC Magazine, focusing on hackers and computer security. I earned a BS in journalism from West Virginia University, and started my career writing for newspapers in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.

The Technology I Use

My little Florida beach bungalow is brimming with smart home tech. I have a smart speaker or display in every room, allowing me to control other connected devices by voice. The Nest Hub on my bedside table lets me set wake-up alarms, control my smart light bulbs, and set the temperature on my smart thermostat. I use the Amazon Echo Show 8 on my kitchen counter to browse recipes, reorder protein powder, check the weather, and watch the news while I do dishes. 

Because I suffer from allergies, air purifiers are essential. My favorite model is the Dyson Purifier Cool TP07, which doubles as a fan and continuously sends indoor pollution data to its companion mobile app. 

My pitbull Bradley sheds, so a good robot vacuum is a must. I currently use a premium Ecovacs Deebot that can both vacuum and mop, empty its own dustbin, and wash its own mop cloth. 

For fitness, I like to mix up my routine with cycling, indoor rowing, running, and strength training in addition to yoga. I take classes on the Tonal 2 smart strength training machine, I row indoors on an Aviron machine, and track my beach runs with an Apple Watch while listening to music on my Apple AirPods Pro. On the weekends, I love riding e-bikes like the rugged, beach-friendly Aventon Aventure for fun and fitness.

My job involves a lot of virtual meetings, so a quality webcam, microphone, and ring light are important. I use the Jabra PanaCast 20 webcam, the Elgato Wave: 3 microphone, and a Yesker tripod ring light. 

As for my preferred phone platform, I'm an iPhone person, but I've also extensively used Android for product testing.

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