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It Looks Like Facebook Is Also Building a Smart Speaker With Touch Screen (techcrunch.com)

Posted by msmash on from the more-creepiness dept.

From a report: Facebook may launch its own smart home gadget to get you messaging more friends and looking at more photos. DigiTimes reports from Taiwan that Facebook is building a 15-inch touch screen smart speaker. Citing sources from the "upstream supply chain", Chinese iPhone manufacturer Pegatron is building the device for a Q1 2018 launch, with a small pilot run having already been produced. It's said to have been designed by Facebook secretive new hardware lab Building 8, using an LG in-cell touch screen with magnesium-aluminum-alloy chassis. While no further details are known about the speaker's functionality, it could potentially extend Facebook's feed of photos and videos plus its dominant messaging platform into the bedroom, living room, or kitchen.

6 of 46 comments (clear)

  1. Isn't Messenger already in the BR, LR & kitche by Nutria · · Score: 2

    Smartphones go with us everywhere, after all.

    --
    "I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
  2. George Orwell predicted Facebook by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

    Never mind The State, we have Facebook, and it makes The State look weak in comparison.
    What's next, Zuckerberg? Facebook cameras in every room of people's houses? Facebook Bluetooth enabled buttplugs (because you seem to want Facebook up people's asses 24/7/365 so why not)?

    Fuck Facebook
    Fuck Zuckerberg
    Fuck ALL 'social media'
    Fuck devices that listen in on you in your home 24/7/365

    1. Re:George Orwell predicted Facebook by Tablizer · · Score: 2

      The difference is in "1984" people were forced to have a Snoop-A-Tron in their residence. The plutocratic version of "1984" is the oligopolies offer you a "deal you can't refuse". Getting discounts will override fear of corporate snooping for most poor.

      In 1984, if you badmouthed the system, you share a cell with fellow soap-droppers. In the plutocracy if you submit a bad Yelp review, you could be locked out of discounts, lose your credit rating, and can't get a ride when the slimy Uber types control the whole thing. Thus, you either starve or steal to survive, and end up in jail with the fellow soap-droppers anyhow.

      Different approach, same result: large % of population locked up or on parole watch.

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
  3. Re:Isn't Messenger already in the BR, LR & kit by Penguinisto · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Unless Zuckerberg can alter the HTML standard (or iOS and Android), that's still an easy enough workaround - the first thing I do with a new smartphone is jettison and/or disable all things Facebook. If I have to access it on the phone afterwards, I'll do it with the mobile browser ("Request Desktop site", continue as normal, even for messaging - which they already try to block mobile browsers from using.)

    I don't want to keep battery-sucking apps pinging out annoyance every couple of minutes on my phone (the apps I use for work do that already), so what makes FB think I want a device in my house that does the same thing?

    Then again, I'm probably not their target demographic...

    --
    Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
  4. Facebook can't even... by srichard25 · · Score: 2

    Facebook can't even just show me stuff I care about on their never-ending webpage. I'm constantly telling it to ignore various sources and people so that it can show me the few things that I actually care about. I have little faith that they can show me useful content on a single screen device.

  5. well isn't that special ! by swell · · Score: 2

    Now you can have five speaker devices from five different companies in each room of your home. Line them up alphabetically if you like. Decorate them for your favorite holidays. Cuss 'em out if they misbehave, but don't expect them to be useful.

    --
    ...omphaloskepsis often...