Facebook Dives into Home Device Market with Video Chat Product Named 'Portal', Report Says

An anonymous reader shares a report: Facebook is about to jump into the consumer hardware business in a big way with a video chat device named "Portal," which will put it in direct competition with Amazon's hugely popular line of Echo voice-controlled devices, Cheddar has learned. The device is designed to work in the home and represents Facebook's first serious foray into selling consumer hardware, people familiar with the matter said. Rather than position the device as a smart assistant akin to Amazon's Echo speakers, Facebook intends to pitch Portal as a way for families and friends to stay connected through video chatting and other social features. Facebook plans a formal product introduction in early May at its annual developer conference and hopes to ship the device in the second half of 2018.

Voiced by Ellen McLain

[HumanWiki]

Hopefully..

Or maybe J. K. Simmons on random rants about lemons.

Teleportation!

[XXongo]

Yep! And if Portal won't give me the ability to teleport-- I refuse to use it!

Re:

[HumanWiki]

Yep! And if Portal won't give me the ability to teleport-- I refuse to use it!

We're not just banging rocks together here. We know how to make a spying consumer device!

Re:

[DontBeAMoran]

Or hopefully, both options.

Hardware?

[Anonymous Coward]

The lead in says ..
"The device is designed to work in the home and represents Facebook's first serious foray into selling consumer hardware, people familiar with the matter said."

So, people already forgot their ill-fated entry into the smart phone market?

Anyone using a facebook phone these days?

Re:

[nospam007]

"Portal will be equipped with a wide-angle lens that is capable of recognizing individual faces and associating them with their Facebook accounts."

'That's the only thing I see Portal doing that my phone won't.'

So your phone isn't spying on you and report back to Facebook who is in your living-room?

That's a feature.

Like the Facebook phone?

[VeryFluffyBunny]

Do you think this will be as successful as the Facebook phone? I mean, it's got a screen on it and you can use it to talk to your friends, you know, those hundreds of "friends" that you've never met?

Destroy it immediately...

[magusxxx]

...if it offers you cake.

Re:

[bluefoxlucid]

Your face is a lie.

Re:

[HumanWiki]

...if it offers you cake.

I used to mod you down, but now I only want you gone.......

Re:

[antdude]

The cake is a lie!

ok facebook...

[kiviQr]

ok facebook, what did John eat for breakfast? ok facebook, tell Marry that I had a toast with PJ! ...just can't wait ....

1984's telescreen on steroids

[JaredOfEuropa]

So, an always-on audio / video device connected to Facebook's servers. What could go wrong? Let's see: "Portal will be equipped with a wide-angle lens that is capable of recognizing individual faces and associating them with their Facebook accounts". Thanks, but I'll pass...

Re:

[CaptainDork]

And echolocation to size the room with merchandise recognition for targeted ads.

I remember, back when Moby Dick was a minnow, the AT&T video landlines that never sold.

Facebook has a shitload of cash and little in the way of innovative ideas and shareholders who are greedy bastards and bitches (I'm sure my portfolio includes Facebook) that's driving Facebook to do stupid shit that brought Yahoo! down.

Re:

[Rick Schumann]

Yep. More surveillance.

Re:

[gbjbaanb]

Anybody have any links on defeating face recognition systems

yup, a small bit of tape. ...put over the camera.

Defeating facial rec

[XXongo]

Anybody have any links on defeating face recognition systems

yup, a small bit of tape. ...put over the camera.

Does not help, of course: unless you never go out in public, there are thousands of cameras you don't control.

My suggestion: find somebody who sort of looks like you. Take a lot of photos of them. Sign up for all the social media sites and post the photos of that other person as your profile picture, and send them to all the social media sites and tag them as you, while simultaneously untagging all the photos that actually ARE photos of you.

Meanwhile, set up a social media site under somebody else's name,

Re:

[DontBeAMoran]

https://images-na.ssl-images-a... [ssl-images-amazon.com]

Re:

[gnick]

Anybody have any links on defeating face recognition systems?>

Just change your password [wikipedia.org] every so often. Problem solved.

No.

[fishscene]

The simplest and best answer to more intrusion in my personal life and data gathering.

Re:

[iMadeGhostzilla]

On some level I see utility for a standalone video chat device. On another I want nothing to do with facebook. Something touch enabled that runs Skype would be fine. (I trust MSoft/Apple far more than Facebook/Google on these matters.)

Re:

[ichimunki]

Standalone video chat device == $20 web cam for the PC, or the built-in one on any newish laptop. Or the built in cams on pretty much any tablet these days. An Amazon Fire 8" comes in a two pack for $100 and does Skype just fine. In fact, the larger Fire 10" has a hands-free Alexa option that sort of makes the Echo line seem redundant, and that runs at $150. I wouldn't touch a Facebook device to do this stuff with a 10 foot pole-- especially at the $500 price point the article cites. I mean, if it came free

In competition

[110010001000]

It is in "direct competition" with Echo, but "not positioned as a smart assistant". This Cheddar guy is an expert analyst.

Re:

[asylumx]

I tried to watch the Cheddar channel on Sling a bit last week. I am baffled that this network can have any credibility after the financial advice they were recommending. It was truly horrible, basically one big ad for various financial products (sponsors).

This sounds great!

[Gravis Zero]

Just think of the entirely new type of ransomware we'll get out of this! Super job, facebork! ;)

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Better name

[slashmydots]

They should call it the Big Brother Secret Eye AI mega ad-bot 9000.