Facebook presented on Wednesday a new television called Portal TV specially designed to carry out videoconferences and to consume streaming content, whether movies, series or video games.
The TV is part of the Portal line of speakers and other smart devices of the Menlo Park company, which has long wanted to open a gap in the world of hardware, especially in the field of smart homes.
Portal TV is equipped with a camera and microphones and, unlike conventional televisions, puts almost as much emphasis on image capture as on its broadcast, since it reserves a fundamental role for video calls and other interactions of this nature.
Users can use the camera to make video calls on WhatsApp or Messenger and to watch series or movies “together” with other people who are not in the same room, that is, sharing their image and sound so that they can communicate during the broadcast
As for “streaming”, Portal TV allows you to view content from Amazon Prime Video, Facebook Watch, Showtime, and Starz.
The new Facebook device can be booked online from this same Wednesday at a price of $ 149 in the US, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Italy and France, and the first deliveries will be on November 5.
Facebook is immersed in a great crisis of reputation because of the multitude of scandals related to the management of the privacy of the data of users who have splashed it in recent years, which has diminished the trust of customers and presumably It has been a slab for the start-up in the market of its hardware products.
Therefore, the company led by Mark Zuckerberg has tried to be especially careful in this field with Portal TV, which has a built-in “cover” to close the camera when it is not used and also allows you to deactivate the microphones.
