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Meta enables ADB on deprecated Portal devices [video]

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

#81

Post by mcintyre1994 »

karlmedley wrote: post #69
mft_ wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It was denied because there are keys on the device that would leak if meta opened it up. (I'm not an android dev so I don't know the ins and outs of that) Any idea what changed? > neglect and stupidity from zuck meant that the portal was killed Is Facebook really set up such that one person's whim is the single point of failure? Is there really no way for teams to progress projects with value somewhat independently…

Is there any company set up so that the CEO's whim isn't a single point of failure?

Arguably the old fashioned ones where the CEO doesn’t have special shares that give them a voting supermajority?

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

#82

Post by fancyfredbot »

karlmedley wrote: post #69
mft_ wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It was denied because there are keys on the device that would leak if meta opened it up. (I'm not an android dev so I don't know the ins and outs of that) Any idea what changed? > neglect and stupidity from zuck meant that the portal was killed Is Facebook really set up such that one person's whim is the single point of failure? Is there really no way for teams to progress projects with value somewhat independently…

Is there any company set up so that the CEO's whim isn't a single point of failure?

Most large companies have the CEO answerable to a board elected by shareholders. CEO still has a lot of power but there are some checks and balances.

Zuck and Musk are somewhat exceptional in being dictator-CEOs.

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

#83

Post by Shish2k »

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.

I'm not even sure if the motivation is as positive as that - the video, blog, and dev docs read more like a sales pitch for meta's AI tools...

(I'm glad they did it, the portal is great hardware; but I don't expect that this will be a pattern of opening up old hardware unless it provides tangible benefits to the AI department)

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

#84

Post by gertrunde »

objclxt wrote: post #77
KaiserPro wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

> They scaled up the team briefly, which meant that lots of weird stuff was tried, but the roadmap was diluted. Boz never cared for Portal, it wasn't his product. I was one of the original engineers on Portal. The VP running the research lap responsible for Portal was canned in a political coup, and her entire org moved under Boz, merging it with Oculus into the AR/VR team. There was some ham-fisted justification aro…

We bought two portals for elderly relatives, predominantly for video calling, and I don't think there has been another product, then or since, that fitted that use case as well, especially with people who maybe aren't as familiar with smartphones.

So somewhat frustrating when it all started to wind down various bits of functionality disappeared a bit at a time, until finally you had something that would receive calls, but not be able to make them - and perhaps not even that any more.

(About the only downside I saw on it was the messenger vs whatsapp tussle caused a bit too much confusion).

But it was a solid bit of household tech for several years, so +1 for that!

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

#86

Post by LeonM »

bedstefar wrote: post #61

Were these ever sold outside the USA? This is the first time I hear about the product.

I was wondering the same thing. I had never heard of Portal before seeing this post. Actually had to pause the video to search what a Meta Portal even is...

Too bad because it looks like a neat device. This feels the same as discovering a neat SaaS product through a "XYZ is shutting down" post on HN.

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

#87

Post by zozbot234 »

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…

> It was denied because there are keys on the device that would leak if meta opened it up.

Many devices wipe such keys as part of unlocking the bootloader. The better ones restore access upon relocking with a stock OS but that's far from guaranteed.

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

#88

Post by jeroenhd »

jstanley wrote: post #73
KaiserPro wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

> there are keys on the device that would leak if meta opened it up. Are these keys not functionally leaked as soon as you ship the device to customers?

With enough encryption, obfuscation, and security-through-obscurity, you can make it extremely difficult to obtain those keys.

Companies like Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony ship consoles that are the target of a very motivated black market/cheating industry, and it usually takes years before any serious leaks surface.

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

#89

Post by jeroenhd »

Twirrim wrote: post #40
gregwebs wrote: post #7

Is this the same Portal device that they disabled every feature on other than Messenger and WhatsApp calls that I can now only use as a bluetooth speaker?

The same portal device that is running an EOL version of Android and isn't getting security updates so you probably want to keep it safely isolated from anything important (if you weren't suitably paranoid already)

Aside from one or two very bad Bluetooth and WiFi bugs (the worst ones usually being device-specific driver bugs), Android's OS itself actually doesn't have a huge external attack surface. Even if you do break in, the SELinux security mechanisms are a major pain to break through, especially with many devices running model-specific configurations.

The real risk of running old Android versions is that apps can escalate privileges or even get root access because of sandbox bypasses. As long as the pre-existing apps on there are updated against vulnerabilities, it's not easy to break into these things.

If it were, enabling ADB access on these things wouldn't be such a big deal, after all!

The mere concept of having Facebook install a camera into your home should be enough for anyone not to want these devices in their homes (with stock firmware). The hardware is very nice but the software cannot be trusted.

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

#90

Post by 9dev »

KaiserPro wrote: post #72
mft_ wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It was denied because there are keys on the device that would leak if meta opened it up. (I'm not an android dev so I don't know the ins and outs of that) Any idea what changed? > neglect and stupidity from zuck meant that the portal was killed Is Facebook really set up such that one person's whim is the single point of failure? Is there really no way for teams to progress projects with value somewhat independently…

> Any idea what changed? sadly, or fortunately I am not at facebook anymore, so I don't have the inside track on what changed. > Is Facebook really set up such that one person's whim is the single point of failure? Kinda. Zuck sets direction, and he has key interests. The thing that really makes him happy is cutting edge research and new features. The thing that passes him by completely is product experience. Oculus…

My gosh, I'm so happy I don't work in this Game of Thrones LARPing travesty…
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