Facebook Plans Camera-Equipped TV Device, Report Says (cheddar.com)

Facebook is developing hardware for the TV, news outlet Cheddar reported Tuesday. From the report: The world's largest social network is building a camera-equipped device that sits atop a TV and allows video calling along with entertainment services like Facebook's YouTube competitor, according to people familiar with the matter. The project, internally codenamed "Ripley," uses the same core technology as Facebook's recently announced Portal video chat device for the home. Portal begins shipping next month and uses A.I. to automatically detect and follow people as they move throughout the frame during a video call. Facebook currently plans to announce project Ripley in the spring of 2019, according to a person with direct knowledge of the project. But the device is still in development and the date could be changed.

Comments

Here comes the telescreen!

[FrankMalenfant]

1984 was an instruction book after all.

Nope

[grasshoppa]

When time comes for me to buy a new TV, if I can't find a non-smart, non-camera equipped TV then I'll forgo the purchase.

Too much nonsense in modern TVs, too much crap I'm being asked to pay for that I don't want.

Re:Nope

[DontBeAMoran]

Buy the biggest, dumb computer monitor that you can find.

Re:Nope

[Anonymous Coward]

I recently bought a Visio TV. I tried keeping it off the network, but it would constantly pester me to set up a network connection for its SmartCast crap. I eventually caved and connected it to my WiFi. Then, one of the first things I did was to give it a static DHCP reservation and set my firewall to block all traffic to and from that IP address. That got rid of the nags, and I'm happily using it as a "dumb" TV paired to an Apple TV.

What could go wrong?

[gander666]

Srsly, what the actual fuck.

"Ripley?"

[Nidi62]

Nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure. And by "it", I mean all of Facebook.