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Illustration of a DoorDash driver making a delivery, and the DoorDash logo beneath it
What Is DoorDash?

Get food, groceries, and more delivered to your doorstep

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Food delivery apps are your best bet if you don't want to cook or go to a restaurant. They can be more expensive than takeout with extra fees and restaurant surcharges, but that's the price for convenience. The food delivery space has many competitors, like Uber Eats and Grubhub. When you want an app that delivers pet supplies, makeup, packages, food, and groceries, DoorDash is the way to go. You can access it from your favorite tablet, smartphone, or desktop browser. We explain what DoorDash is and how it works.

USPS logo over image of conveyers laden with packages
How to track a United States Postal Service package

Don't lose your tracking number

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The worst part about buying something online is waiting until you receive it. The only relief to waiting for your package to arrive is tracking your package along every step of its journey. No other shipper moves as many packages in the US as the US Postal Service. USPS makes tracking your flashy new Chromebook easy while it's in transit.

apartment locker with the amazon hub apartment locker logo above it
What is Amazon Apartment Locker?

How Amazon is fighting pesky porch pirates

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Porch piracy has become a concerning trend in this day of rapidly growing online shopping. Many of us spend our work hours outside the house, and delivered packages are left unattended at our doorsteps, making them vulnerable to theft. While a good security camera is a deterrent, it's not a foolproof solution. To tackle this issue, Amazon launched a smart solution, the Amazon Hub Lockers and Amazon Hub Counters services. These services offer a secure way to retrieve your packages from designated Amazon lockers, ensuring your deliveries are in safe hands.

An app drawer on an Android phone with the focus on the Uber app
What is Uber Connect?

What is Uber's Connect service and how can you use it?

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There are several popular ride-share and food delivery services available, such as Lyft or Doordash, but Uber started it all. Uber is well known for their ride-share services, but they have other offerings. On your Android phone, you can order a ride or your favorite food through Uber Eats from the comfort of your couch. Another little-known offering from Uber is Uber Connect, which is a same-day delivery service. Here's a look at what Uber Connect is and how to use it.

A woman pulls out an Amazon package from an Amazon locker.
How to set up an Amazon Hub Locker and pick up an order

Package thieves are a thing of the past

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The growth in online shopping over the last 20 years has brought a new problem: package thieves. Even though stealing mail can come with federal charges and land you in jail for five years, up to 210 million packages were stolen in 2021. How can you prevent your Amazon deliveries from being swiped from your porch while you watch helplessly from work on your Ring Video doorbell? The answer is Amazon Hub.

An app drawer on an Android phone with the focus on the Uber app
Uber will start playing video ads while you wait for your ride

Long-form ads are coming to all of Uber's apps

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It's nearly impossible to completely avoid ads today, and as you browse Facebook or scroll through TikTok, you're bound to find yourself inundated by them. While we eventually get used to them (well, to an extent), it's still always a bit jarring when ads suddenly invade a new corner of our lives — remember all the backlash when ads came to Android TV? Get ready for another period of adjustment, as we learn that Uber is adding some quite lengthy video ads to its apps.

Watch an Alphabet-owned delivery drone get attacked by a bird

The drone took the battle, but the ravens won the war

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The idea of drone-based deliveries has become such a mainstream concept that even Parks and Recreation managed to joke about it during its final season set in the far-flung future of 2017. While it has yet to become widely used, other companies — including Google — have tested similar technology for years. Unfortunately, these companies forgot to plan for the one threat that could potentially bring down the entire operation: birds.

Google Maps makes it easier to find takeout and delivery food with everything shut down

Takeout and delivery labels have been pushed to the front across the board

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Lots of our local businesses may be closed, and we may be trapped at home due to the ongoing pandemic, but that doesn't mean we can't still order a bit of takeout or delivery from a nearby restaurant. Whether you're just trying to keep your local joints in business or you're working twice as hard and don't have time to cook, Google Maps has adapted to the changing times. The app now promotes filters for both takeout and delivery food. It also highlights those two details as labels beneath restaurants in the maps overview and in search results.

Behind every delivery app is a person—tip them well, especially now

At a time like this, more than ever, a few extra dollars can mean a lot

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Right now, almost all of us are relying more on delivery and on-demand services than we ever have in our lives. Be it Instacart, Uber Eats, Grubhub, DoorDash, Amazon Prime Now, or Postmates, the gig delivery economy is operating at heretofore unseen levels. In many ways, this is great: it means Americans are staying home, reducing their exposure to others, and doing their best to flatten the curve of the coronavirus pandemic that is now spreading across the globe. But in using these services, it's critical to remember that the people bringing you these goods often aren't well paid, and rarely enjoy any kind of benefits. You should be tipping them well.

Here are 41 grocery delivery apps for supermarkets and stores across the US

Food Lion to Publix to Walmart and beyond

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There are plenty of grocery delivery options out there in the time of our society's self-isolation and subsequent, exacerbated need. Some of them come from national services such as Amazon, GoPuff, Instacart, and others. But if you want to be able to get right at the source for your produce, meats, and pantry-fillers, your local store might have an app for that.

The best grocery (and alcohol) delivery services, plus discount codes

Stay fed, stay lit, stay safe from the coronavirus

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The coronavirus pandemic continues on and social distancing is the new normal. But you've probably seen news footage of hordes of people at the supermarket, ready to pounce on a pallet of toilet paper or a bottle of hand sanitizer come the rooster's crow. Doesn't look too socially distant, huh? Maybe you'd be better off having your groceries delivered for you. If you're able to pay a small premium, then there are a bunch of apps that can help, and we've got the skinny on them.

So, you've bought into Google Stadia with that $130 Founder's Edition kit, you've got enough internet pumping in and out to blast 4K HDR games without the console, and you're just about to explode with all the titles set to come in the next year. All you're waiting for is the word "go," and so far, we've only been given the word "November." But a couple of clues have recently popped up in the Stadia subreddit in the hopes of letting us mark down a specific day on our calendars.

Google is rolling out a food ordering platform that puts pretty much all of the activity on its own domain — it's been promised since I/O 2018 and in testing for the past several months, but the company's announcement on its The Keyword blog indicates that the feature is spreading out.

Walmart may no longer be available through Google Express, but the company now has even more options for shipping. The 'Crap store,' as fellow AP writer Ryne so eloquently put it, is now starting to offer free one-day delivery for general merchandise at select locations.

It's a concept that's been teased by megacorporations for years yet has only had meaningful progress in recent years: delivery by drone. For Google, Project Wing was conceived some 6 years ago as a way to shoot dog food from a local warehouse to your house. Today, the FAA announced that Wing, now the bona fide Alphabet company, has become the first drone delivery company to receive an Air Carrier Certification, meaning that it can now legally do business in the United States.

Two-factor authentication is a great way to make your accounts more secure, but using SMS messages for the codes is a bit of a hassle: request code, switch apps, copy code, switch apps, paste code (or read and remember the code, but what is this, the 1840s?). Android Messages has a new trick that makes the process a little easier: it now parses 2FA codes from texts and presents the option to copy them with a single tap.

Amazon is no stranger to dipping its toe in different stages of the shipping and delivery process. It already uses local couriers to make two-hour deliveries in select US cities, offers consumers the option to allow for in-home deliveries, and operates its own fleet of cargo jet planes and trucks. The Wall Street Journal is now reporting that Amazon plans to launch a delivery service of its own in Los Angeles in the coming weeks with plans for a wider rollout later this year.

Since Amazon paid an eye-watering $13.7 billion for Whole Foods Market last summer, we knew we'd eventually see some integration of the luxury grocery chain's products into existing Prime services. It's taken a while to work out the details, but Amazon has just announced that Prime Now customers in select locations can now get Whole Foods items delivered within two hours.It's only available to residents of Austin, Cincinnati, Dallas, and Virginia Beach to begin with, but more cities will be added over the course of 2018. If you live on the outskirts of any of those places, check the site to see if you're eligible. Products from pretty much every aisle will be available through Prime Now, and Whole Foods CEO John Mackey says he's worked with Amazon to bring prices down across the board in preparation.To qualify for a two-hour delivery slot you have to order at least $35 worth of groceries. If you're super hungry (and have money to burn) you can fork out $7.99 for extra-fast one-hour delivery. Orders will be taken between 8:00 to 22:00, either online or through the Prime Now app. Happy shopping![EMBED_APP]https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.amazon.now[/EMBED_APP]

Two weeks ago Amazon announced both the new Cloud Cam and Amazon Key service, with November 8th set as the official release date for both. According to the calendar, that day is today. Right now you can order both the standalone Cloud Cam as well as the Cloud Cam Key Edition, an Amazon Key kit, or the separate individual Amazon Key Edition smart locks. 

The Amazon Key in-home delivery service was announced to much fanfare two weeks ago. At the time, you could pre-order the kit for $249, with an expected shipping date of November 8th. Well, that day has finally arrived, and with it, the Amazon Key app has also hit Google Play. If you don't remember or you missed the news, Amazon Key is a new product and service provided by the mega-retailer which allows you to let Amazon deliver goods inside your home, dropping off packages on your side of the door. Like other smart lock systems, you can also use it for more general purposes, like remotely locking or unlocking your door. Combined with Amazon's Cloud Cam, you can make sure that all entry is monitored and recorded for your security, ensuring that the convenience of in-home delivery doesn't come with any unfortunate costs.[EMBED_YT]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wn7DBdaUNLA[/EMBED_YT]Amazon Key supports a handful of smart locks, which you can select from when you order the kit, and the accompanying Cloud Cam requires a subscription for anything beyond 3 cameras and 24 hours of storage. Amazon Key also only supports in-home delivery in some areas so you might want to check your eligibility before you order one.The service's corresponding Amazon Key app was released to Google Play just yesterday. From it, you can do things as simple as check if your door is locked, remotely lock and unlock it, and perform more complex tasks such as set up guest profiles for friends, coordinate your Amazon in-home deliveries, and even watch those deliveries (if you have an Amazon Cloud Cam).

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