Facebook launches Portal TV — this just started "The Living Room Wars"
The "I-don't-know-what-to-get-mom/dad-for-Christmas" gift... Facebook's $149 Portal TV turns your tube into an eerily smart and aggressively social streaming device (it's a spinoff of Zuck's AI-powered Portal tablet). ETA is November, but the high-tech camera/speaker bar boasts 1 crucial gadget: A low-tech privacy knob you slide to block the camera.
The snuggling is sold separately... True to Facebook's original mission — connecting people online — the Alexa-powered Portal TV lets you and bae be together even when you're apart. Here are its 2 most powerful features:
- Video call using Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp. The face-recognizing camera follows you around while you wash lettuce, bake a pie, and set the table mid-call.
- "Watch Together" lets you stream videos on Facebook Watch but keep the corner of the screen on video chat — Your remote plus-1 is watching with you on the screen. Portal TV then adjusts the volume when you need to chit-chat about where you've definitely seen that actor from before.
The Living Room Wars... They're 1 chapter away from The Streaming Wars. You've heard about the battles between Netflix, Disney+, and others over who owns Seinfeld and Peter Pan. Even Comcast announced yesterday it's making its "Xfinity Flex" streaming device free for all cord-cutters, which dropped Roku shares 14%. Now it's all-out conflict for the living room, and Zuck wants in.