Honestly, being expatriated, I can kind of see the value in this - unfortunately I doubt the people I actually want to communicate with regularly will be adopters of this. The tech savvy being too untrusting of it, and the unsavvy not sure what $150 buys them over tools like Skype.
Facebook launches Portal TV, a $149 video chat set-top box
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Re: Facebook launches Portal TV, a $149 video chat set-top box
#221984 is not a business model.
Amazon's Alexa has actually been quite successful.
Re: Facebook launches Portal TV, a $149 video chat set-top box
#23I can't find the article, but the "Facebook Showerhead" and "Facebook TV" were both joke products back in the early '10s. This is hilariously predictable.
Re: Facebook launches Portal TV, a $149 video chat set-top box
#24> The Portal TV is genius
No.
Re: Facebook launches Portal TV, a $149 video chat set-top box
#25What demographic is this intended for?
People who would by an Alexa show and still watch normal TV. So, my parents for example. Though an interesting thing has happened. Event though this is very similar to Google or Alexa devices with cameras, I'd bet money on my parents having a similar "how about no" reaction to any Facebook hardware. They are Facebook users, but I think there is a lot more inherent scepticism around Facebook that has been growing over the past year. Maybe, if this came out before the show, it would have been the other way around. I'm in Germany btw.
I'm definitely not the target. The two features here (TV and video chat) are completely opposite to my needs. I want a dumb (relatively) box to which I can hook up my Netflixes and Prime Videos etc. and view them without any ads in the UI (looking at you, scum of the earth Smart TV manufacturers). Apple TV, Roku or whatever. The hardware that is, not their respective services.
Re: Facebook launches Portal TV, a $149 video chat set-top box
#26i don't even understand the product after reading the article. what is the value of this? its an always on teleconference with my facebook friends? no thanks.
from my understanding its a suite of products. One sits on your tv like roku but has a camera to let you get the experience of hanging out with friends digitally / AR etc... The others with screens seem like just regular tablets to me but probably with less features.
Re: Facebook launches Portal TV, a $149 video chat set-top box
#27If you think what the office space guys did to that printer was bad....
Re: Facebook launches Portal TV, a $149 video chat set-top box
#281984 is not a business model.
It's actually a fantastic business model if you care more about profits than ethics, and it seems like Facebook wants a piece of the living room surveillance pie that Smart TVs/Alexa/Google Nest have been enjoying these last few years. It's a shrewd business move on Facebook's part; think of the things people discuss and do in their living rooms and the additional data they will end up giving Facebook.
I think they actually mean that 1984 shouldn’t be a business model.
Re: Facebook launches Portal TV, a $149 video chat set-top box
#29I'm sure lots of smart people spent a lot of time and effort working on this, but unfortunately my answer is: Hell no!
> lots of smart people spent a lot of time and effort working on this
That's unfortunately true of a lot of undesirable things. Ad tech, trackers, robocall software, nicotine, wacky inflatable tube guy, large swaths of law and politics...
Wouldn't it be great if we all worked on good things? The whole hill climbing / gradient ascent algorithm this planet is running would work a lot faster.
Re: Facebook launches Portal TV, a $149 video chat set-top box
#30I know there probably won't be much actual discussion on anything but privacy concerns here on HN (don't get me wrong, it's an important discussion to have, but it tends to push out literally everything else), but I did want to point out that this quote from the article is nice to see: >We’ve done what we can in this latest generation of products, now with integrated camera covers that are hardware, indicator lights…
The first Portal devices as well as this Portal TV are using an OS based on Android AOSP.
So porting Fire TV or Android TV apps will be much more easy for developers who want to offer their content on the Portal TV.