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Facebook Dives into Home Device Market with Video Chat Product Named 'Portal', Report Says (cheddar.com)
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.
Hopefully..
Or maybe J. K. Simmons on random rants about lemons.
Yep! And if Portal won't give me the ability to teleport-- I refuse to use it!
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?
Debate is a form of harassment. Do not question my truth.
...if it offers you cake.
Care killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.
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?
ok facebook, what did John eat for breakfast? ok facebook, tell Marry that I had a toast with PJ! ...just can't wait ....
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...
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
The simplest and best answer to more intrusion in my personal life and data gathering.
It is in "direct competition" with Echo, but "not positioned as a smart assistant". This Cheddar guy is an expert analyst.
Just think of the entirely new type of ransomware we'll get out of this! Super job, facebork! ;)
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
"Facebook's first serious foray into selling consumer hardware" um what about the Rift?
My sig doesn't address Anons, sigs aren't visible to them.
They should call it the Big Brother Secret Eye AI mega ad-bot 9000.
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, and fill that social media site with photos tagged as you.
"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.