Facebook introduced its new range of Portal devices yesterday including a direct upgrade to last year’s model, a mini version, and an intriguing webcam-like variant, the Portal TV.
Facebook released the original Portal smart displays in November 2018, featuring 10.1-inch (Portal) and 15.6-inch (Portal Plus) models. The Portal included clever motion tracking algorithms, allowing its camera to pan and zoom to follow a person as they moved, but it was met with hefty criticism.
While it was a nice prospect from a technical standpoint, reviewers voiced significant concerns over privacy. Almost one year later, has Facebook managed to quash the complaints? Let’s have a look at what the new Portals offer.
Portal and Portal Mini
What’s this about Portal TV?
Time to welcome Facebook into the home?
For more on the Facebook Portal, including now live U.S. pre-orders, visit the official website.
🤳 Instagram will restrict who can see posts about cosmetic procedures, weight loss products (The Verge). An Instagram spokesperson said the company aims to “reduce the pressure that people can sometimes feel as a result of social media.”
📱 Huawei Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro launch today: here’s how to watch the live event (Android Authority). The leaks suggest we’re in for a treat; tune-in from 08:00 ET.
🏎 Lamborghini’s crazy looking hybrid is more interesting under the hood (Engadget). This looks all kinds of fine, but if you’re more keen on a vehicle you might can actually buy, here's every electric vehicle on sale in the US for 2020 and its range (CNET).
🎲 And in a second automobile story today: Truck carrying gaming dice spills onto highway, rolls a perfect 756,000 (Kotaku). I guess that’s one way to try and get Free Parking.
📺 AT&T explores parting ways with DirecTV (Wall Street Journal).
🔬 A huge experiment has 'weighed' the tiny neutrino, a particle that passes right through matter (Gizmodo). It’s the culmination of 18 years of planning and construction.
🕹 Apple Arcade launches today, here’s the full list of games (CNET).
🗺 You can soon hide your tracks in Google Maps thanks to incognito mode (Android Authority).
🌂 It was my umbrella that locked us out of the WeWork (Vice). The man behind the story that broke the internet speaks out.
🌚 A lunar space elevator is actually feasible and inexpensive, scientists find (Observer). But it wouldn't be a human-carrying elevator with a button that says “moon,” sadly.
👋 If you want to see six tech products I use every day plus mini reviews of them, I wrote about it recently here (Android Authority).
Happy birthday to the emoticon! :D
Thanks for reading, until tomorrow!
Scott Adam Gordon, Editor.
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