Meta enables ADB on deprecated Portal devices [video] • Hacker News Board

Re: Meta enables ADB on deprecated Portal devices [video]

#131

Post by petterroea » Sat, Jun 06, 2026, 6:24 AM UTC

KaiserPro wrote: post #55

petterroea wrote: post #26

It is sad that it takes a Meta developer having some fun to realize they should open up ADB. This isn't the repairability and reuseability of old devices mindset people have been begging for. This is some guy using internal privileges to having some fun, and deciding the rest of us should get a piece of the fun as well. This is a "happy story" in the same way it is a "happy story" when some kid successfully fundraise…

> It is sad that it takes a Meta developer having some fun to realize they should open up ADB. Former facebook research lab twat here. It wasn't one dev. We asked when they shitcanned portal (which was a great product, badly managed) to open it up. Infact one of the kernel devs made a very direct plea to allow the community to adopt the hardware so that we could avoid Ewaste. It was denied because there are keys on t…

I totally believe you that people inside have asked. I think part of the problem is that the people actually making the decisions higher up do not care and aren't really invested in these issues.

To the point that some guy vibecoding for a bit and deciding it was fun had more effect on the company's ability to open up an abandoned product than an entire consumer movement that has been lurking in the zeitgeist for ages.

Re: Meta enables ADB on deprecated Portal devices [video]

#132

Post by davidedicillo » Sat, Jun 06, 2026, 3:55 PM UTC

utopiah wrote: post #106

davidedicillo wrote: post #35

I had a couple of old Meta Portals sitting around the house. I always liked the hardware, but after Meta moved away from Portal, they mostly became devices collecting dust. So I turned them into a routine board for our kids. It helps our kids stay on track without us having to repeat the same reminders over and over. And they are both pretty competitive, so nobody wants to finish their tasks second https://github.com…

Nice, that's a great use of it. What does it do that a paper version with magnets can't though? Does it track time? Rank? Something else?

They accrue points over time and it tracks daily, weekly, and all time progress. There's also a way to use points to "purchase" stuff like extra tv time, different desserts, small toys (e.g. tech decks), or other bigger things they desire (e.g. a new tennis racket)

Re: Meta enables ADB on deprecated Portal devices [video]

#133

Post by ClikeX » Tue, Jun 09, 2026, 7:36 AM UTC

mft_ wrote: post #101

ClikeX wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is Facebook really set up such that one person's whim is the single point of failure? It doesn't sound that surprising, does it?

To me, with experience of numerous organisations of different sizes outside tech, it is pretty surprising. (I'm not arguing that this is right but) the typical progression of an organisation as it scales is to move away from the 'scrappy startup with a CEO-dictator' and towards something more mature. Obviously, there are reams of business literature written about growing pains and then stagnation in large companies,…

Companies should move away from it. But it's still pretty common.

Looking at my own country. There are multiple big companies with a "founder-mode" CEO that is a massive prick and wants to be a dictator.

I feel like having the US president try to run their entire country this way is also validating a lot of those CEO types.