Facebook to launch updated ‘Portal’ devices in 2019
San Francisco: Social networking giant Facebook is set to launch updated version of its video chat device ‘Portal’ later in 2019.
Andrew Bosworth, Vice President of Facebook’s Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) confirmed that the company has a lot more to unveil “later this fall”, related to Portal, The Verge reported on Monday.
According to Bosworth, Facebook would also reveal some “new form factors” that Portal would be shipped with.
Speculations suggest these “new form factors” could include the “Ripley” device that has appeared in Portal firmware repositories, the report said citing TechCrunch.
According to Cheddar, the device named “Ripley” would allow customers to attach a camera to the top of their television sets which would eliminate the need of a dedicated video chatting device.
The device was first launched in November 2018. While the smaller device was priced at $199, the larger “Portal Plus” was made available for $349 with 10-inch display and 15-inch display, respectively.
The device is also powered by Amazon’s voice assistant Alexa and comes with front cameras.
“Hardware is coming to the home, and we want to make sure that human connection, connection between two people, is a first-party experience on that hardware,” Bosworth said.
