Facebook unveils its new smart home devices (Topic)

On October 8, 2018, Facebook announced two video calling devices - Portal and Portal Plus.

Facebook has been focusing on bringing people together for nearly fifteen years. For this purpose, various applications were developed. They are mainly used on smartphones and the web.

The “face books” team understands that the development of applications alone cannot bring people together. Therefore, the company's technical specialists continued to work with the goal of creating any rendezvous devices. Now there is a result.

What can they do

Portal and Portal Plus have cameras with a resolution of 12 megapixels each. The presence of artificial intelligence allows you to arrange video chats.

The camera of each of them works on the basis of its own algorithms. She monitors the user's movements, allowing for easy communication.

Portal and Portal Plus also include Amazon's Alexa so you can, for example, listen to the weather forecast or play some music.

Is this already the future?

Portal has a 10-inch screen. The price of the device is around $ 200. The larger device, Portal Plus, has a 15-inch camera. It also costs more, almost 350 US dollars.

In order to advertise them and increase sales, Facebook is launching its own marketing campaign. They will surprise with new products using a separately created website.

These new items from Facebook are a breakthrough for an enterprise not only in the technical industry, but also in the design, creation and sale of this type of equipment. If Portals are successful, the company can attract more people to use its social network all the time. Apps like Spotify and Pandora will get a second life.

Not the right moment

However, experts say that the moment was not chosen for this process.

For two years, the name Facebook has been associated with absurdities and scandals. The audience is skeptical about him now. It will be very difficult to promote Portal and Portal Plus ads.

In 2017, it became known about "holes" in the company's security system. According to the most conservative data, there have been more than 50 million user leaks. Some third-party applications have also been compromised.

To increase privacy, the new items are equipped with electronic switches for the front cameras. Each video call has its own code. Also, Facebook's servers have nothing to do with AI. It functions directly only on the device itself.

How it works

Products are powered by the Facebook Messenger platform. The software is also linked to the Facebook users' network. When you connect any of the "Portals" to your Messenger account, there is an immediate opportunity to communicate in video chat. A user contacted from the other side can use a smartphone, tablet, Portal or any other device.

Highly competitive market

Developers of new products have entered a highly competitive market. Amazon's Echo introduced smart speakers back in 2015, which now have their own category. Their popularity and market position are growing. Amazon and Google are leading in the US, Alibaba and Xiaomi are gaining momentum in China.

Among other things, over the past two years, smart speakers have gone through the next stage of evolution. They got screens with which they can conduct video conferencing, watch videos and various applications.

In 2017, Amazon launched the Echo Show, which has a display. Lenovo has been associated with Google for the development of the smart screen.

This shows where Facebook got to by launching its new products into the series. Everything would be fine if the company did not have a sad experience with hardware.

Five years ago, she already worked with HTC on the HTC First. It was a Facebook-powered smartphone project. It all failed. What will happen now? Let's see.

The Topic of Article: Facebook unveils its new smart home devices.
Author: Jake Pinkman