Facebook presented Portal and Portal +, two new devices to keep at home to make video calls with your friends through the social network. The two products have similar functions, but as their names suggest they come in two different formats: one with a larger screen, which can be oriented both vertically and horizontally, and another smaller one with a fixed display. In addition to video calls, Portal and Portal + can be used to listen to music through Spotify, view photos and videos, access the services offered by Alexa, Amazon's home assistant.
By introducing its new products, Facebook especially highlighted the video calling function. Portal and Portal + have a high definition video camera, which recognizes the faces of their interlocutors, and follows them as they move around the room they are in, so as not to make them fall out of the frame.
Many may not feel comfortable with a device equipped with a fixed video camera at home and always connected to the Internet: for this reason Portal and Portal + have a clip to insert on the lens to freeze the shot; there is also a button to physically disconnect the camera from the power supply and to do the same with the microphone.
For now, Portal and Portal + will only be sold in the United States, priced at $ 199 and $ 349 respectively. It is one of the first products to be physically produced and sold by Facebook, apart from the virtual reality headsets of its subsidiary Oculus.
Facebook announced Portal and Portal + discreetly, with no major press events or special promotions. For now, the company intends to test the new system and see how it will be received by users. For a couple of years Facebook has been suffering from a growing mistrust on the part of its subscribers, due to the events related to the Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential elections, to the case of Cambridge Analytica, to the recent security flaw concerning the personal data of at least 50 million subscribers to the social network and more generally due to the lack of attention shown by the company and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, to privacy issues. All these factors could significantly affect the fate of Portal and Portal +, and more generally on Facebook's plans to become more present in the homes of its members.
