Facebook has unveiled three new video chat devices, one of which is dedicated to use with TVs, as it seeks to focus more on private forms of communication, after years of slower user growth, data sharing scandals and calls to Change their content management policies.
The three devices are the Portal Mini with an 8-inch screen, the Portal 10-inch portal, and the new Portal TV that uses TVs to display content with a 12.5-megapixel camera. And eight microphones.
The new Portal TV supports a small number of music applications and some TV services and will not be a strong competitor to existing TV platforms such as Apple TV, Netflix and Rocco.
Prices and places
Portal devices are now available in several countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France, Italy, Spain, Australia and New Zealand, and are priced at $ 129 for the Portal Mini, $ 179 for Portal and $ 149 for Portal TV, Facebook said in a blog post.
The company added that the new devices support video calling through the application of Messenger and WhatsApp service, and the advantage of that cameras support wide-ranging photography and maintain a focus on the user during the movement in the room.
The company plans to launch the Portal Mini and Portal starting October 15, while it plans to launch Portal TV starting November 5 next.
The company had previously unveiled the portal portal which comes with integrated cameras and high-quality screen and internal microphones and relies on Amazon's smart assistant Alexa, in order to allow users to communicate with each other and make video calls in high resolution and smoothly, before adding a new button that allows users to make WhatsApp calls.