My Christmas present this year from my wife was the new Facebook Portal. I’ve used it several times to connect to friends and have video conversations. We do the same thing with the Alexa Vision product, but the Facebook product uses Facebook, where the vast majority of the folks I connect with all the time, are anyway. I have to say the convenience of literally clicking on a picture to connect with a person is nice. But let’s start this review with setup first. The box as is often the case was larger than the device. When the box arrived, I wasn’t sure where the device would fit. I finally (with permission) devised to put the new Portal in the living room.
Now, one of the things you have to consider when placing video devices that are connected outside the house is placed. In the case of Alexa Vision, we keep it in the kitchen. In the case of the Portal, we are keeping that in the Living Room. The portal has a “flip-able screen. You see in the cover photo that the s reen is in the up position. You can also, for a wide view, flip the screen tot eh side. You can watch several facebook video offerings via the Portal. You can, as said above make video calls to people as well. Setup is very straight forward. First, you plug the unit into the wall outlet. We plugged it into a power strip, but that is more because I get nervous about power surges and electronics.
The next thing is walking through the on-screen setup. You cannot go to your home WiFi network. You then log into your Facebook account. The system will download the update (they always ship devices one revision below). Once it is updated, it will restart and load the screen you see in the cover picture. The device is fully operational at that point. Although, you do have to connect the video accounts to use it as a presentation device. Overall setup took me about 20 minutes. The quality of the video and audio is first, dependent on the quality of your home network. The more devices you have on your network, the less likely your video calls will be pristine.
Overall my rating of this product is a 7 out of 10.
-
Do you trust facebook?
-
Yes
-
No
-
Do I trust Facebook? Depends a lot on what are we talking about. If it is privacy, certainly no ?
I struggle with that question, I am still struggling with that question. Thanks for the input!!!
Q: Do you trust facebook?
Yes (2 votes) – 22%
No (7 votes) – 78%
I use facebook but I am cautious….
Looking at the poll results, you are not alone.
fb has given every reason to distrust them
They have. That is why the portal sits off most of the time. It is on when I am using it only.
limit your window of exposure is a standard security precaution
It is the dumbest one also. If, I am a hacker, and I want to get you, i just wait til you are online, and load a wake on network trojan horse.
The next time you are online, it is my system!
a machine which is intermittently on is harder to hack than one which is on all the time
that having been said, it isn’t much of a security feature as speed bump for a hacker
I always tell people that the best thing to do is plan to be hacked. Then work backward from there.
Ransomwear when you have an offline backup, allows you to get around the attack.
if you can restore your system from some form of backup, the only thing you have to fear is data loss and downtime…
Online and offline backups.
Then the backup doesn’t lose data. If you automate the backup process you don’t have to think about it!
sure, but there is generally a window between backup and where you’re at. you try to minimize that…
yes that is fair.
the window is best removed by two a three-tier backup!
1. Do not back up applications (those can be recovered faster in other ways)
2. have an online backup engine (Carbonite)
3. Have an offline backup (no more than 1 day out of whack).
indeed, there is a point where backing up will actually hinder your performance…
I used to work with an admin who always said the fastest backup is no apps installed!
I actually have all my apps installed to a different partition, so my boot partition is as small as possible
I remember those days.
The problem I’ve found over the years is API bloat, I am diligent in watching who puts what in my System and System 32 folder.
I find the reality is most applications are poorly prepared for a new secure world.
what do you mean? I just download DLLs from wherever and throw them in system32…
I meant DLLs thanks for catching my error.
I do as well, just search google for random DLL’s as a hobby.
we call it DLL Roulette!
I was kidding! I never get DLLs from a third party…
FB gives me a place to post my blog posts and to interact with the many poetic groups I got to be a part of before G+ went belly up. I also get to contact my old offline friends and my many online friends. I do not know about the FB portal I do not have a smart phone.
I spent a lot of time on G+ for various tech groups. I miss it!
My primary use of FB has been the same as yours to connect with Online friends. I have connected with friends from long ago.
I use LinkedIn as a more professional place.
I am on Linkedin too but I also post poems there which are of interest for those I am part of 2 poetry groups with.
LinkedIn always feels much more formal to me.
I didn’t know there were poetry groups on the site.
I very little use FB. I do not have confidence, I’ve heard quite a few bad things.
They have made some very bad decisions in the past few years.
I am on the FB only I use it very little … occasionally …. and, in truth, I do not trust him so much, so I also have a little bit of information … I do not have any of these devices … simple profile
they (Facebook) haven’t been playing by good rules for awhile.
I would not know because I am really just an occasional user
sorry, Facebook has really been in the news a lot lately. But they have over 1 billion real accounts…
I actually don’t use FB much anymore. I did for a long time.
Glad you are enjoying this device. I am trusting FB less and less each day unfortunately.
I don’t blame you, they haven’t been playing well with others lately
Let me visit your portal…………
🙂 I thought the same thing when I first saw the name.
I have actually stopped using facebook, I am currently keeping just my account alive. I do not like facebook.
i understand that. Lots of people don’t like facebook.
did you use it heavily in the past? I should have asked earlier?
OMG! I would love to have one, too. Can we watch a movie over the portal?
Right now it is facebook videos. Netflix and Hulu are on the plans.
Facebook videos are available today, the others are coming.