Posted on 10/08/2018 8:48:30 PM PDT by BenLurkin
The social media giant today introduced two devices, which are both Amazon Alexa smart speakers with video displays. The Portal and Portal+ are hands-free devices with cameras and microphones for video calls to Facebook friends. As you might have guessed, a Facebook account is required.
If another person joins you on the call, everyone will always be in the frame.
“Both models are designed to make you feel closer to the important people in your life, and make video chats seem less like a call and more like you’re actually in the same room,” according to a Facebook press release.
The two models, offered in white or black, differ in size and functionality. The $199 Portal has a 10-inch display, while the $349 Portal+ boasts a whopping 15-inch pivoting display, which automatically pans and zooms on calls. That way if another person joins you on the call, everyone will always be in the frame. The camera and mics also automatically follow a caller moving around a room while they’re speaking
(Excerpt) Read more at digitaltrends.com ...
Winston Smith approves!
Or maybe he didn’t and they killed him.
Dang. Just what I need. Something spying on me.
The congress should pass a law that says web-site can have a privacy certificate if they agree to not sell your information and to not use information accept for your interest. Then facebook and others would try to get to that standard. It would need to have a logo.
It’s a picture of the Creepy Porn Lawyer whose eyes follow you around the room.
Cool, facial recognition on a house by house basis complete with always on microphones. Good thing Facebook is politically neutral.
2084
Plus a visual record of every room in the house.
Cool. Until hackers use it to case your place and come take all your stuff while you’re out. Corporate spyware ping!
When I was in school in St. Louis in the early ‘80s, on nights when I couldn’t see my girlfriend, on the way home from the library I used to stop at the Cheshire Inn and give her a call from the British-style phone box outside. So there I was, and there she was in her apartment sitting next to and talking on a phone plugged into the wall. It made my day to hear her voice. It was intimate. I still remember some of those conversations.
I have never made a visual phone call. I just never have seen the need for it. Just as I find radio a more intimate medium than TV, I also find a simple voice call more intimate. I guess if I were far away from someone and hadn’t seen her for a long time, I might like the visual part, but otherwise, no. And as for a gadget that is smart enough to track me around the room — hell, no.
All the better to swat you with my dear...
Shows something you would rather not have shown.
Anyone on FR...using FB....is doing it wrong.
Wow! So, I can spy on myself and Facebook can share that information with China!!! According to the Democrats, Russia is already spying on all of us and controlling our thoughts.
“Plus a visual record of every room in the house.”
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Just think of it. They’ll know where the private citizen’s protection/arms are without even having to trick the kids into telling the teachers at school if mom or dad has any guns in the house.
Oh, I sure hope those who have protection/arms in their residences see through this overt spying tactic. Sheesh.
It’s ever so much more intimate having your gf watch you pick your nose, scratch your butt and go to the bathroom.
There’s good intimate, and there’s bad intimate. : )
I find skype useful when on long business trips - for talking to my wife and young daughter. The little one’s face lights up when she sees me.
Other than that, I do not use video calling.
I can see its usefulness in some situations, such as yours. The one time I saw a Skype call was when my wife wanted to contact some relatives in Europe, and I set it up for her to use. She hadn’t seen them in years. The other good thing about it is that it’s free. My wife commented on how her father used to pay through the nose when he international phone calls. He would have loved Skype, but he didn’t live to see it.
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