Facebook Unveils Portal and Portal+ Smart Speakers With Video Calling Feature (cnbc.com)

Facebook on Monday unveiled a pair of smart speakers, complete with cameras and microphones, for your home. From a report: The devices, Portal and Portal+, directly challenge Amazon, Google and Apple in the fast-growing smart-speaker market with a unique approach that will emphasize video calling. It's Facebook's first hardware product outside the Oculus line of virtual-reality devices. To start a video call, users can say "Hey Portal, call ..." followed by the name of a connection on Facebook's Messenger service. These calls include entertaining augmented-reality features that can outfit users with cat hats or turn their living rooms into animated night clubs. Another feature is Smart Camera, which uses artificial intelligence and the devices' cameras to perfectly frame users on video as they move around while on a call.

[...] Besides video calls, the Portal devices can stream music from Spotify, Pandora and Amazon Music and video from Facebook Watch. Not included at launch are services like Apple Music, YouTube, Netflix, Hulu or HBO Now. The devices come equipped with Amazon's Alexa voice assistant and the many skills available on that service, allowing them to ask questions like "What's the weather?" or "How are my teams doing?" [...] The company is taking preorders for the devices now and will begin shipping them early next month. The Portal, which features a 10-inch screen, is available for $199 while the Portal+, which has a long, 15.6-inch screen, is priced at $349. WashingtonPost reports that the device follows the person in their house: What's unique about Facebook's device is the tech it uses to make the video calls look good. Think of it as a personal cinematographer: A 12-megapixel camera -- equivalent to most phones -- identifies the shape of people within its 140-degree field of view and pans and zooms to make sure they're all always in the frame. You can wander around the room, do chores, Jazzercise, play with the kids or whatever. (Or, if you want, you can tap on the face of one person and the Portal camera will track just them.)

Comments

Where do I sign up?

[fuzznutz]

Just what I want: A closed platform with microphones, cameras, and Facebook spying on me 24/7.

Re:Where do I sign up?

[Anonymous Coward]

The UK is planning to meet it's 2020 emissions target by a combination of wind, solar and harnessing the inexorably rotating coffin of George Orwell.

Will there be cake?

[scourfish]

This is very important to my purchasing decision.

Re:Will there be cake?

[Quinn_Inuit]

Well, they'll tell you there will be cake, but it will be a lie.

Re:Who is actually using smart speakers?

[Chrisq]

It's funny, because he's also one of those paranoid guys with a large collection of guns who thinks the government is tracking him and is going to try to take his guns away.

They should just offer him an exchange for free Amazon speakers

Re:Who is actually using smart speakers?

[DontBeAMoran]

Here's an idea, Slashdot. Since the "Funny" mod is not supposed to count toward karma or whatever, how about making this moderation a separate score?

Example: (Scores: +3 Informative, +27 Funny)

"Smart speakers"

[DogDude]

I assume they're called "smart speakers" because smart people don't use them? That's pretty weird.

Re:Some actual good uses

[JonnyCalcutta]

For senior citizens living on their own. "I've fallen, and I can't get up!"

'Dialing America's Funniest Home Videos. Please wait.'

Re:Who is actually using smart speakers?

[drinkypoo]

That certainly would make moderation a lot more fair, but you can just get used to it. Save your jokes until you've got a really funny one. I have lost over a dozen karma on a single post due to a mod war involving lots of funny mods, but it's all just part of the game.

You do know Slashdot is just a MMORPG, don't you?

Re:Some actual good uses

[Actually, I do RTFA]

These are good uses for remote-view cameras. These are not good uses for Facebook operated remote-view cameras.