That Time We Talked About The Portal

This is episode number 74 of The Homeowner Show. Whether you're DIY or looking to hire, we're here to help you find the best information and options for you and your home. My name is Kevin Hackett, and here with me is Craig Williams.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to The Homeowner Show. We're glad that you could be with the show today.

Glad you're here.

Yes.

Be, be with the show.

You're not on the show, you're not in the studio, but we're glad that you're here.

Yeah. You know, I think some people think—

In spirit.

That we have like this, this elaborate plan of how we're gonna do these things, and be with the show is what came out this time. That's right. Whatever.

I don't know what I'm gonna say. It comes out different every time.

Uh, that's funny. I listened to another podcast and, uh, And, and they were talking—

How dare you?

Yeah, well, you know, uh, they were, they were saying something about on Facebook about something that they were doing, and I was like, wait a minute, you don't plan these things out weeks in advance? And they're like, no, not at all. Which is funny to me.

I mean, like, you know, I— it's probably fair that— I mean, we do some research.

We do, absolutely.

I mean, like, we definitely vet our guests. Yes.

So, and, and like today, the, the guest has been thoroughly vetted. Yes, it has. Uh, uh, it being the keyword. Um, but that being said, I mean, you know, there's other stuff that just is what it is.

Yeah.

So anyway, how you doing?

I'm doing all right, man. It's, uh, you know, I've been, I've been actually, I've been a little under the weather. I'm feeling okay, but like I've just been under— I'm, I'm not my usual chipper, So I'm trying to get a little, little extra rest in these days and get, get back up on my feet. But been doing some stuff around the studio, stuff around the house, uh, keeping busy.

Yeah, it's looking good in here, man. Like, if, if— I mean, most people can't see, obviously, but like, you painted in here, you finished up some of the wall, and, uh, it's looking good.

Yeah, man. Like, I'm, I'm, I'm— it's feeling more and more like a studio.

Done. It's feeling more and more done.

It's feeling more and more less like a chicken coop.

Yeah, no, it's, it's looking really good. So yeah.

Which honestly, man, if it was like— it must have been like some Soviet-era chicken coop. I mean, like, these were communist chickens living in here for sure. They were— they had to have been so sad.

Yeah, yeah, of course. But it— man, it's looking really good.

It's— yeah, it's coming along.

It's, it's okay. We're 74 episodes in.

Yes.

We're getting close to where we're like, when people walk in to interview, we're not like, hey, sorry about the studio. Like apologizing when you walk through the threshold.

Now it's like, you should be amazed.

Well, now whenever they walk through the barn, it's like, you won't believe what you walk into.

That's right.

It's so much better.

Now we gotta fix the front part.

I don't think that's gonna happen.

Probably not gonna happen.

No, let's be realistic. But it's less drafty in here too, which is good. Covered up some, uh, some of the draftiness.

Yeah. So what's new in your world, man?

Well, uh, you know, I— one of the craziest things that's happened recently is, um, this was right before Christmas actually. I just haven't had a good chance to bring it up, but it, it finally got taken care of a couple of days ago. Uh, I, I got a letter from our POA, which most people that have any sort of association tied to their home—

Does that stand for Property Owners Association?

Yes.

Okay.

That's what I was about to say. Most people have an HOA. Yeah, which is a homeowners association. We have a POA, and part of it's just the way the, the neighborhood itself is set up, right? Um, it is its own separate neighborhood. Like, you're not gonna— you— there's one way in and one way out. And so very different than a lot of neighborhoods that have multiple entries and exits, and maybe you could even potentially go from one neighborhood into another neighborhood and not even realize that you left one of them, right? And, and different HOAs may govern the 2 different ones. So, so where, where our house is located, it's just a very, very different animal.

And, uh, I got a bit of a bottleneck getting in there too, by the way.

Well, it can be unless you live there. If you live there, it's, it's a breeze.

Yeah.

But if you don't live there, they make it difficult.

You gotta talk to Sergeant Slaughter at the front.

That's exactly right. And I pay for that every single month. Uh, so anyway, I get this letter and I'm reading this letter and I hand it to my wife. I'm like, you've got to be joking me. And she said, what? And I said, look at this. So she reads it and she said, really? Yeah. So I read this letter and it says, it's obvious that your house, your roof has leaves on it.

Mm-hmm.

And per the property owners association code, you can't have leaves on your house.

Like, it's—

we're in Houston. It's still fall here.

It's just becoming fall.

That's exactly right. Like, we've still got leaves on trees.

Yeah.

And I'm like, you've got to be kidding me. And this is now— this is the end of December, so So still a lot of leaves are falling.

Yeah.

And like, you, you've got to be joking. So I literally, I walk outside. Oh, and oh, by the way, they, they had a picture on, on the letter.

On the letter?

Yes, on the letter there's a picture of our house. I'm like, someone photographed this. And so I walk outside and I literally just standing in my driveway and I'm looking at the houses across the way and I was going, They got leaves. They got leaves. They got leaves. They got leaves. All of these houses have leaves on them. So I assume that someone went around with cameras and took a picture of every single house and posted it to everybody.

Yep.

Or I just got lucky, Kevin. Yeah, I pay. You better. I ain't paying for that.

Now, you paid for the pictures. You paid for the ink. You paid for the postage.

Exactly.

You probably paid for the guy's time to drive around and take a picture of your house.

I'm paying for more stuff than I need to. I guarantee that. I want the armed guard at the front. I don't necessarily want the guy with the camera in his pocket.

Yeah.

Um, but the, the only, the only upside was that this time they didn't, uh, they didn't attach a, like, a timeline with a—

Oh, so this has happened before?

Yes. So, um, I don't know, like maybe a year after we lived there.

You're a repeat leaf offender.

No, no, this was a different situation. So I had a, uh, a spare tire outside my house from our camper, and it was up against the, the side of the house. And I got a letter saying that I had, uh, what, what wording did they put? It was something like, um, unsightly garbage around my house, and if I didn't move it, it was gonna be a $50 fine.

Mm-hmm.

like per week that it wasn't taken care of. So I was like, again, I mean, okay, it's spare tire, maybe people don't want to look at a spare tire, but at the same time I'm just kind of like, you've got to be joking me. This is the best you've got? You got to have better time than this.

You got to come down hard on this stuff, Kev, or people just take advantage of you.

I guess. Thankfully this, this one didn't have a a fine associated with it.

Yeah.

So, or a timeline saying if you don't get it done within a certain amount of time. So I waited until this week to do it.

All right.

And did you climb up on the roof and get the leaves? No, I should have.

Yeah.

But, uh, no, there's a really nice guy in our neighborhood that takes care of a lot of people's yards, and I was like, hey, how much you charge me to take care of this? He said $40. Uh, $40? Like, for my entire— I got a, I got a lot of roof.

Yeah.

And then He cleaned up all the leaves once he blew them off and everything. So $40, the best $40 I've spent in a while.

There you go.

So no, I could have got up there and done it, but I'm old and I had $40.

That's 2 $20s. That's the double deuce to the neighborhood right there.

Yeah. And, and now no more letters to me. Well, for now.

We'll see what other garbage you let accumulate.

These are so ridiculous. Like, but, but it's that kind of stuff that like people, it's, it's, they just don't want to live in that neighborhood or in certain neighborhoods because like they, they've got these ridiculous rules that don't make sense to most people.

Yeah.

I mean, I'm not like, I, what doesn't make any sense is that our next-door neighbor, you, you can't have like Uh, come like recreational vehicles in your, in your driveway, right? They got a boat in their driveway. Yeah, then they leave there all the time. Yeah, like, how did they get away with that?

But leaves on the, on the roof, man.

I don't know, they probably pay them more or something.

That's right, he's paying off Sergeant Slaughter at the front. Either that or they're like, hey, the fine for anybody stops by to take a picture of my boat Tase them.

Tase them. I mean, around here, you never know. The fine for keeping a boat in the driveway may be cheaper than storing it. They've done the math.

Yeah. Honestly, that's one of those— I'm surprised I've never gotten a letter. I mean, it's like, how?

People have to drive onto your property to start looking.

I mean, we have a boat that stays in the driveway all the time. You just can't see the driveway from the road.

Right. Exactly.

I don't know what— it's not the driveway. It's like the thing in front of the paddock.

The paddock. Now there's a, there's a term.

Is that—

I mean, I guess.

Everyone out there know what I'm talking about?

No, no guarantee. People don't typically know what the word paddock means.

How dare you insult the intelligence and vocabulary of this audience.

I'm just sticking up for the people out there going, use words that we actually know, Craig.

You're gonna get some hate mail over that one. Yeah. They're all in there as thesaurus and then dirty names they want to call you.

Did he say padlock? The padlock to his— no, paddock. Anyway, well, let's, uh, let's, let's move on.

Well, like, well, this could, this could be kind of fun, mostly because I don't care. Um, so tomorrow is kind of a big deal for a lot of people.

Yeah.

Not me.

No, because you couldn't care less.

I could care less.

No, you couldn't care less.

Could care—

If you could care less—

I could care less.

Really?

Yeah, because then we wouldn't even be bringing it up at all.

I assumed that you were so below that, you know, on this thing that you don't— you couldn't care any less.

Yeah. Well, anyway, so tomorrow's the Super Bowl.

Yeah.

But when the show airs, the game will already have been finished.

That's true.

And since I don't even know who's playing—

Oh, it's so sad.

Let's, let's go ahead and get a Kevin prediction, 'cause I know this is a big deal for you. Like, you're, you're a big fan of the, of the game.

I, I like football.

Yeah. I just could care less about watching professional sports.

Um, right.

But, uh, so who's playing?

Okay, so we got, we got the 49ers, right? They're representing the NFC.

With Joe Montana?

No, not even close.

Okay.

Um, although I do have his autograph.

Oh, fun.

Uh, and I've got his rookie card. Um, that was, that's a fun story I need to tell you sometime. Yeah. Um, And then we've got Kansas City.

Okay.

So the Chiefs. The Chiefs. And they're representing the AFC. So here's the thing. Like, I am—

We need bold predictions here, Kev, so that on Tuesday, if you're right or wrong—

Here it comes. It is what it is. So my deal is this. I am— I'm a Cowboys fan. Uh-huh. Have been in my entire life. I come by it naturally. I grew up in the area where everybody's a Cowboys fan.

Sure.

So just come by it naturally. I'm also a Texas Tech fan. Okay, I grew up just south of Lubbock, Texas, so, um, I grew up going to, to Tech games and all that kind of stuff. So I'm a Red Raider by heart. And so I, you know, the Cowboys, obviously they suck. So, um, we'll see what the future holds. We got a new, a new coach, Mike McCarthy's coming in, so I'm pretty excited about that actually. Uh, we'll see what happens. I'm not a Dak Prescott fan, so I know a lot of people are, so you can send hate mail to me if you want to about that. I just have no use for the guy. I think he's— anyway, so, but I am a Texas Tech fan.

Mm-hmm.

And you're asking me, well, what does that have to do with anything? Except that the quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs is a Texas Tech alumni.

OK.

So Patrick Mahomes is the quarterback for the Chiefs, and I mean, he's really been— he's been tearing it up in the NFL since he got there, setting some ridiculous records. And so I've been kind of keeping up with him for that reason. As a fan, I want the Kansas City Chiefs to win. Not because I care about the Kansas City Chiefs. I want Patrick Mahomes to win.

Sure.

There's a really funny meme that came out not too long ago. It said Lubbock, Texas fans. It had a pie chart. It said, those rooting for the 49ers is a little sliver. Those rooting for Kansas City Chiefs, a little bitty sliver. Those rooting for Patrick Mahomes was the rest of the pie chart. Which is, which is kind of where I'm at on this. So as a fan, I want— I am rooting for the very first time for an AFC team. I've never in my life wanted an AFC team to win.

Okay.

Because Cowboys, NFC, I'm just kind of rooting for the same division. Um, and so anyway, I, I'm rooting for Kansas City Chiefs. Um, honestly, I think it's gonna be a really good game. I'm excited because There, there are not teams that are typically there, right, for the first time in a long time. So, you know, not the Patriots. Exactly, not the Patriots.

From what I understand, they've been in it quite a bit the last few years. They—

yes. Okay, they have. Um, I saw, I saw a, uh, something in there, uh, on Facebook the other day that said that Texas Tech has had like something like 14 years of having a player from Texas Tech play in the Super Bowl. And I was like, thank you, Wes Walker, who played for the Patriots for like ever. So anyway, I, at this point, I think it's going to be a very good game. Um, both teams are, are excellent, and I think that, I think honestly the 49ers probably have a leg up as far as, um, just overall what their, what their year has looked like. I think they've got the leg up, but I, I'm, I'm rooting hard for the, for the Chiefs, and I think what we're gonna see is a very

hard-fought game, and I'm saying the Chiefs are gonna take it 28-24.

Okay, that's my prediction. Pretty bold. 28-24, even, even calling the score out there.

Yeah. All right, so here we go.

Nice. Yeah, so 4 TDs.

Yeah. Are you gonna watch the game?

No, and I could care less about the commercials too.

Well, that— they've become a lot less interesting to me recently, but commercials in general, just like, they bother me. Well, and now you don't have to watch them almost any time, so yeah, yeah.

Like, my— like, here's, here's the, here's the up and the downside of this, of this whole streaming thing, right? My kids like really don't know what commercials are.

No, mine either.

Um, so that's, that's a good thing, right?

I think so.

The downside of that, right, is that when they do see a commercial, it's very effective.

Oh yes, the marketing scheme is— it doesn't matter what it is, I gotta have that.

Yeah, yeah. And so it's, it's brutal.

Yeah, yeah, I feel you on that. It's very rare that my kids see a commercial. And what's interesting, and I don't know if you've ever experienced this, like every once in a while, a commercial would come on and my kids would think that was a new show.

Yes.

They'd go like, oh, this is a show about this toy.

Yeah. Well, but that actually is like a whole phenomenon on YouTube.

OK.

Is watching kids. It's— what is that? Twitch? Is that what it is? Where you watch other people play video games?

Yes.

So like there's this other thing on YouTube where you can actually watch other kids And this is like 4 kids play with toys.

Yeah, don't they unbox it first?

Yeah, that's typically— I mean, like, they unbox the toy, then they play with the toy, then they play with another kid with a toy, and then you want the toy.

Yes, I just want to be that kid.

Yeah, I want to be that guy, right? I want the toy.

Yeah, exactly.

My 6-year-old watches it like incessantly.

Yeah, it's unreal.

I don't get it.

No.

And like, I really don't get the whole watching other people play video games thing.

Well, my son is super into Legos, right? And— or excuse me for hardcore hardcore fans, of which I'm pretty close. Lego. There's no S. He loves playing Lego. There's a new show coming out.

Sorry if that bothers you. Get over yourself.

Exactly.

I don't care about you. I don't care about the Super Bowl.

But saying Legos should be—

I'm going to say it on purpose now.

Totally acceptable. There's a new show coming out called Lego Masters.

I've seen that. It actually looks pretty cool.

I'm pretty pumped about it. You can go on, on YouTube, and Amazon Prime has a, has a whole show as well of people that open boxes of Lego and just put it together.

Yeah.

And you watch them put it together. My son can watch that for hours. He thinks it's the best thing ever, and he's 5.

But it feels like watching a baking show. I watch you cook it and then I don't even get to taste it.

Well, but, but at least I learned how to— I mean, learning how to put Legos together is not that big of a deal. Can, can you stack things? But But bake— baking's like an art. You at least learn something.

Yeah, you're gonna get some hate mail on that one too, saying that Legos aren't art.

No, I didn't say it wasn't art. I just said if you could stack things, then you can, you can build Legos.

Oh man.

Yeah.

All right, let's, let's get into this thing.

We were way off track.

Yeah, we're all over the place today. So we, we were actually sent a, uh, a device that we're gonna review today. It's the new Facebook Portal, which actually I don't think this is the newest one. Right?

This isn't— No, the one that you, the one that you, uh, have been given that's in your house right now is not the newest version. Right. Yeah.

So, but it is kind of a new device out on the market and they, they made a couple of big changes to the newest model, um, that give it some different functionality. This one's, uh, it basically has the same concept though. It does the same stuff. Um, so what we're talking about is the new Facebook Portal, which, if you're not familiar, Facebook has decided to come out with a series— they have several technology companies now. I don't know if you've noticed that. There's several. I think Oculus is now actually owned by Facebook. Yeah, they are. They're really getting into the technology end of things, the hardware end of things. This is supposed to be like an

Alexa Show. I'm trying to think of some of the other ones. Does Google have one? Google does have one.

Google has one, as well. I don't remember the name of it, now that you say that.

So they're essentially smart home voice-activated devices that have a video touchscreen.

Yes.

Built in? Is that—

Yeah, it's integrated.

There you go.

Yeah, it's its own display. And depending on what you got, like, I'll just tell you right now, they've got different versions. They've got the Portal Mini, which is an 8-inch display. They've got just the Portal, which is more the version that you've got. It's a 10-inch display. And then they've got what's called the Portal Plus, which we'll kind of get into in a little bit. That's a 15.5-inch display. So, I mean, that's bigger than the first TV I had. You know, those 13-inch tube TVs. Right.

And then the Portal Plus, actually, you can change the orientation of the screen, right?

Yes.

And the other ones are locked in place.

Yes. Yeah, we'll get into that a little bit. So now they also have one, um, called the Portal TV, which basically— like, you remember, you remember the, uh, when the Xbox came out with their, uh, their live deal where you could move in front of it? What did they call that? Where you could move in front of it and it would like— it, it kind of recorded. It had a—

I think we actually have one on right there. Is that what that— is that what that is?

That's exactly what that is.

I don't remember what it's called, but I know it's right here. Yeah. It's the motion-activated camera. What is that thing called? Does it have the thing on there? Well, maybe it says it on the box. The Kinect. Yeah, there you go. It's with a K though.

Yeah, yeah, with a K.

So, um, we actually used it quite a bit. I really like that.

Yeah, so, so it would kind of sense your movements. Yeah. And you would play video games and such. And they even really used it for like workout videos and different things.

We used it a lot for like, um, they had some really fun dance games.

Yes, that was really good. Yeah, exactly. So, so they— the Portal has something called Portal TV that's something very similar to that, um, where it's kind of got a camera on it like a webcam, but you plug it into your TV.

Oh, okay.

And so it's, it's kind of its own little device.

Almost like a Fire Stick or something.

Yeah, and it basically uses your TV as, as the main screen rather than using, you know, itself as, as the device.

Okay.

So like the one that you've got in your house, the Portal, which is 10, 10-inch, um, it's a 10-inch display. Yep. And, um, I'll let you talk a little bit more about what it kind of— what it does.

Real quick though, on the Kinect.

Okay.

Did you ever play on one of them?

Yes, a little bit.

Did you ever play the Disneyland game?

No.

Dude, that's still like one of my all-time favorite video games.

I may not go home tonight.

So, well, like, you basically use— you, you use your hand gestures to point in the direction that you want to walk.

Oh man.

And you can literally walk around Disneyland and meet characters and go on rides and But like, it's not, it's not like going on the rides at Disneyland. It's like a whole adventure that you step into. Super, super cool game. Okay. I'm gonna show it to you sometime. Yes. You'd really love it.

Oh yeah.

So I actually, I was actually hoping they'd come out with a new version of it with the new Xbox.

Right.

Which I think they made it compatible, but it, they haven't done anything new with it. Sure. Um, but anyway.

Yep.

Uh, Portal.

Yes. So, uh, What is it designed for? Let's start there.

What it's designed— that's the thing, is like, we typically review products that we really, really like, and just right off the bat, I don't particularly enjoy this product. I get some use out of it, but like, and so like, my thoughts on it may be a little skewed. But what it's for is for Facebook. I mean, like, really, that's its strong suit.

Sort of. Okay.

Because you can't really even interact with Facebook with it. So like—

Okay, so it's not, so it's not like it's got a Facebook app on it that you just log into Facebook, scroll through it?

Like, you literally can't like anything from the Portal.

Which, I mean, I guess if you think about it, that would be kind of odd. You're sitting at, you know, like, yours is in your kitchen, so you're sitting around, you know, waiting for stuff to cook and you're scrolling through on this 10-inch display through Facebook. Why don't you just pull your phone out and be mobile? I mean, you know what I mean?

Like, I guess, I mean, but like, it would seem like you would, I mean, because it has like a video watching feature.

Yeah.

And so like, it would seem that, you know, you would at least want to give people the ability to like, like something, you know? And now you have like multiple things that you can do to posts and all that kind of stuff. Um, but like, so you can't really even engage on Facebook with it.

Okay, with one exception.

You can do Facebook Live.

Okay.

Yeah, I mean, but like at that point you're going live and you're receiving comments, you're receiving the likes and the hearts and the whatevers, but you can't, you know, you can respond in the video, but you can't do anything beyond that.

Right.

So that, that's one of the things that's just odd to me because it's a Facebook-specific device that doesn't really interact with Facebook.

Yes.

So that was just a weird— and like, I get what you're saying, but at the same time, it's like, this is for Facebook.

Sure.

I mean, that's what it—

that's what it's there for. It's created by Facebook, right, for Facebook.

Yes.

But you can't do anything with Facebook other than go live.

Right. Now, I will say one of the things that it seems it's really built for is Facebook Messenger.

Okay.

And that to me is one of the more powerful things that this device does because it allows you to make phone calls, it allows you to make conference calls, it allows you to make video calls, and you can do it through Facebook Messenger. And it allows you to, like, you can, you know, access your contact list. So obviously you have to log into this thing to your Facebook account. You can log into multiple Facebook accounts. So like, if there's, you know, several people in your home, they all have their own account, you can all be simultaneously logged into this thing.

Okay.

Which gives you access to contact lists and all that kind of stuff. So, you know, If you're in a house and you have one of these, don't put anything sensitive on Facebook Messenger that you don't want other people in the house to see.

Right.

Which is just a good rule in general anyway.

Yes.

But that being said, it's a powerful tool with Messenger because it lets you know who's active right now. So I was showing you when we were in the house, like, okay, look, I can call you and it tells me that you're active on Facebook right now.

Right.

Which means I'm more likely going to be able to get ahold of you.

Yeah, because I'm sitting there with some sort of a device or my computer open.

Right.

And if you tell it to ring, my, my Messenger, either audio or video, it's already on, right? I mean, my, my screen's on, so I'm at least there.

Yeah. And so it, it works really well in that regard. And then just one of the reasons we pay attention to it in the kitchen so much is because, you know, we put it up on the countertop. We want— we wanted to— I wanted to put it in a place where I was going to be forced to use it because I knew we were going to do a show on it. And I want to make sure, you know, I want to engage with this thing and get all the goody out of it. One of the really cool things about it is you can set it up to display photos from Facebook history.

Okay.

And so, like, it's been bringing up, you know, I've had a Facebook account for almost 10 years now, which is crazy to think about.

Yeah.

And so it's dredging up photos that I was putting on there, you know, 8, 9, 10 years ago.

Wow.

And I'm like, oh my gosh. And it'll even tell you how long ago that was and what month it was from.

Oh.

And it'll even tell you like, you know, and so it's— and a lot of that's based on the algorithm of like whether or not people liked it, whether or not people commented on it, and all those kinds of things, and whether or not it's actually that day that that photo was on, because it'll, you know, bring it up that way. So that's been fun.

Sure.

Uh, because if you just leave it on, it'll just—

it'll set its own screensaver.

It is its own screensaver, and— but it doesn't just constantly run. It has a smart camera on it that recognizes whether or not you're in the room.

Oh, okay.

So, you know, you guys have heard me talk about my kitchen before, how you kind of have to like go upstairs into the kitchen. And so like I can look up at it and tell that it's off, and as I walk into the kitchen, it lights up and starts showing photos and things like that. It does have a feature where you can cover the camera. It also has a button where you can turn the camera and the microphone off. Um, that's actually probably a good thing to note is it has basically 3 buttons. It has turn microphone and camera off and then volume up and down, and that's it. Everything else is touchscreen.

Sure.

Um, the— in order to get it to work well with most of the things on Facebook, you have to integrate it with your phone.

Okay.

So it, it's not really paired with a phone, but it kind of is. It needs that phone to have access to the different aspects of Facebook.

Okay.

Um, it doesn't really I mean, it doesn't really use it as an access point because you connect the Portal to the Wi-Fi, but for whatever reason, it's got to connect to your app on a, on a smart device in order to function properly.

Which, that, that makes sense.

Sure. Um, it's an easier way to log in, and Facebook's one of the more secure.

Yeah. Oh yeah. In fact, you know, if you think back to one of our very early episodes with Micah Quinn, um, We were talking with Micah about, um, how logging in with Facebook is sometimes— it's, it's more secure, right, than if you log into a website just with your email address and password. Uh, which I kind of was looking at that going, well, now it's like that website now has full access to like Facebook and all these things. And, and Micah was saying, well, actually That's its own little source of security.

Yeah.

And so it's actually more secure to log in through Facebook. So, um, whichever—

since that episode, I— anytime it offers me that option, I use it now.

I did too, because I didn't think about that. I didn't know that. In fact, I actually saw it as a downside, um, but he helped us understand that it was an upside. So, I mean, it makes sense that it, that it would log— it would interact somewhat with your phone. Yeah. In order to make that device work. Now, another thing that it does, and, and this is kind of— there's a little bit of a nuance to this, but it's, it's kind of an Alexa too, right?

Well, you can, you can activate Alexa in it. You don't have to.

Okay.

And so it's kind of weird. If you turn on Alexa, you can use Alexa, and whenever you say Alexa, it uses the Alexa voice. Okay. And it uses the, like, you know, if you have an Alexa, you know it uses that blue light that kind of wraps around. It does that on the screen.

Yes.

Which is kind of weird. And so, yeah, so you can activate Alexa in it.

But it just communicates to an Alexa device, right?

No, no, it acts as its own Alexa device. So, like, you can say, you know, Alexa, play music. Alexa, turn the lights off. Alexa, do da da da. Anything Alexa— the only thing it doesn't allow it to do is become part of any group.

Oh, okay.

Um, and so you can't simultaneously stream music there and then downstairs at the same time, or any of those other kinds of things that you would typically do with a group function within the Amazon device.

Okay.

You know, family.

Sure.

Um, but it is, it is nice to have that be part of it. So like, we use it in the kitchen a lot to make like announcements for like dinners being ready, or, you know, hey, you know, we need you to come upstairs, you know, or just communicate in general.

Sure.

Throughout the house. Um, and, and the reason I say it's kind of weird is because you have to say Alexa in order to activate the Alexa, but if you want to use any of the Portal functions, you have to say, hey Portal.

Oh, okay.

Um, and that's a totally different voice and then a totally different interactive system.

Okay.

Um, and, you know, that's different from say like the Google and— what's the other one?

Uh, the, the, the—

I know there's the Alexa one, but there's—

and then there's Google.

And then isn't there another one?

No, I don't think so.

No. So anyway, with, with Google and the Alexa Show, those are kind of like closed operating systems where like you— it would be weird to like activate Portal on an Alexa, right? Right. Because one, I mean, like, there's nothing that Alexa can't do that—

right.

And in a sense, there's, there's no need for it. No. Um, so it— and I guess that was just something they felt like they had to do in order to make it more appealing to the audience or something like that.

Um, well, I mean, it, it, it is a feature.

It is. And like, honestly, it's one of the features that makes me like it.

Yeah, because now you don't have to have an Alexa device in your kitchen, right? Because it acts as its own.

Yeah.

So I mean, there's, there's a few limitations, but for the, for the most part, it still is gonna work like most Alexas would work. Yeah.

Yeah. And I mean, like, in the sound on it, it's not bad.

It's—

I mean, it's not like the most impressive sound, uh, as far as like music quality, um, but it gets the job done for listening to stuff in the kitchen. Yeah. Um, one of the other things that's kind of a bummer about it is When you get it, it says, well, hey, you can, you can go here and download apps and get these additional apps for your portal. And you're like, oh, cool. Well, that means that there's like 10.

Yeah. I mean, I can tell you what the apps are.

And we have time in the show to do that.

Exactly.

That should tell you exactly how many apps there are. There's just not that many.

I'll run through a couple just to kind of give people some ideas. So it's got the Alexa built in. It also has Prime Video, Sling, Pandora, CBS, Fox News, CNN, the Food Network. Those are just a few. iHeartRadio is on there. That's a few of them.

Those are the more well-known ones.

And the majority. I almost listed all of them.

It's very limited.

there is— I mean, so yeah, you—

we've been talking about a couple of things that are kind of frustrating about it, but I, I have a list of good things that I like about it. I mean, like, for sure.

Yeah. And, and Messenger is one of them. Yeah, that's a big one. And another one of them is— and I think this is super cool, but, uh, it, it works on this, but I think the other, like, like the Show and the Google device also do this— and that is it's got its own, like, the video camera follows you.

Yes.

And that is— that's a super cool feature.

I don't— I don't know that the other devices do that.

I think— I think the Show does.

Maybe it doesn't.

I thought it did.

I think we'll probably have to double-check that.

Okay.

Because that— that has been the most marketable feature about what Portal does, for sure. I've seen that in several of their commercials, um, and it just does it really, really well.

Okay.

And so it doesn't just One of the things I think that's different about it is it doesn't just follow you, it frames you in.

Yes.

And so, like in my kitchen, if I step over the refrigerator, I'm much further away from it than I would usually be when I'm at the sink.

Right.

And so when I move over to the fridge, it actually pans over and zooms in on me while I'm talking.

Which is super cool.

And like it does that live while I'm talking to somebody else on Messenger with the video. It does it really, really well.

Yes.

And it even does it— it can recognize multiple people in the room as well. And so—

So it'll recognize different—

So let's say there's, you know, I'm standing at the sink, there's someone to my left, and I go to the right over the refrigerator. It's gonna stay panned out because it knows that there's 2 people there that might potentially join in the conversation.

Okay.

Rather than if it was just me, it might follow me over to the refrigerator.

Yeah.

Um, so it's— I mean, it's very, very smart. It works. You can tell that's something they spent a lot of time on, and good for them because they— I mean, like, they really— they did a good job with it. Sure.

Well, and you have to think, like, the, the other thing that, that is a plus for this device— it is a Facebook device. You know how many people are on Facebook?

Yeah.

So I mean, the number of people that you can interact with through Facebook is different than the number of people you're going to interact with through an Amazon Show, for example.

Oh, for sure.

It's just a completely different— just the sheer number is different. By the way, the Google is called the Google Home.

Google Home.

I couldn't think of it. It finally came to me. Anyway, that's a huge plus for this thing.

I'll tell you this, though, man, and my daughter Showed me this the other day with our she was in her room and she's just gotten Alexa Dot and she'd gotten a girl's phone number like one of her little friends at school has a cell phone which I don't know why she's got a cell phone my daughter didn't need no cell phone but my daughter had her number okay and so she goes hey Alexa call da da da da da da da da da da da da okay and she did it it called her wow and she talked to her on the phone with a little dot in her bedroom.

Wow, that's unreal.

And I was like, how'd you do that? And she goes, it's always done this.

Oh my goodness.

I'm like, I didn't know that.

Yeah, this is the way it's begun, man. So many things that technology that these kids know how to do. Well, and like I knew how to do whenever I was young, that my dad was like, how'd you do that? Yeah, now it's like exponential.

Oh yeah. Well, and the upside about that now is like, you know, I can tell her like, she knows my phone number. And I was like, you know, so if you're home and you need something from dad, Call me on the Alexa.

Absolutely.

So which works? You can do it on the portal with— through the Alexa.

Sure. Yeah. Or, or through Facebook Messenger.

Yeah.

You use that as well.

Well, and I will say this, my kids have used it to video message my mom.

Okay.

And they really like that.

Yeah.

And so that's been a fun thing for them to do together is to talk on their devices together when they can't actually be in front of one another.

Sure. So By the way, I'm looking and, and I, again, this is just very, very quick glance, but I think you're right. This may be the only device that, that will follow you whenever you're, whenever you're walking around the kitchen, for example. Yeah, it looks like it is the only one that the video will follow you.

Okay, I wouldn't be surprised if the other devices catch up with that though.

Yeah, and, and basically what it's saying is like the, the video camera hasn't necessarily been the absolute most important thing of these, these other devices, right? Even though they're a video format like that, that's actually what it's for. It's utilizing a lot more than just the video camera, right? And, and whereas the Portal seems like the majority of what it's doing is, is the video camera, right?

So, and, and let me, let me say something about that there because I thought this was something interesting. One is Facebook is putting a lot of emphasis on their new video section. And so they're, they're looking to become kind of a Netflix news studio kind of video. I mean, they have original programming that's coming out and you can watch all of it through the Portal. Um, but like, you can't really watch YouTube on the Portal.

Right.

Now, the Portal has a web browser, and so you can get on the internet, you can go looking for recipes and all kinds of stuff. That's essentially how you can watch YouTube. And so it brings it up as a browser and then you can, you know, click on the full screen mode in order to watch your video. But like, it's, it's nothing near as convenient as like just doing it on your phone, doing it on your tablet where there's a native app for that. Yeah. And again, that's, that's, I think that's one of the biggest things that was just like a real big letdown for this is like they didn't really take the time to bring on some big players to develop some apps for their platform.

Yeah. No, that's, that's That's definitely the case. So, so, so kind of where I, as we were researching this and kind of getting into it and playing with it a little bit, one of the things that I said to you, um, and, and this isn't a knock necessarily, I think it's actually a plus, is I think for people of an older age bracket, like this would definitely be easier for them to use.

Oh yeah.

Than other devices that's kind of like, it's got all these buttons on it.

It is a very simple, simple platform.

Yeah. And so like, if all you're really wanting to do is have an option to, you know, call your grandkids and let them see you and, you know, just kind of have something in, you know, that you're not just, you know, using your phone all the time. Because honestly, like my, my grandmother, for example, um, it was pretty funny. Um, my— so my aunt gave her an older iPhone.

She got—

she upgraded, so she gave my, my grandma her old iPhone. And when my cousin found out about it, first thing he said was, oh no.

What?

He's like, I'm gonna get calls all the time, you know, trying to figure out how do I do this, how do I do that? Because to be honest, like, phones can be very complicated if you're not used to them. It's not something that you use all the time. And so this— the fact that there's only a few apps And you— there's not really anything you can do to, to mess it up. You, you're not going to lose an app on a page, right? You know, because there's only a certain number that you can have anyway. So for people that just want something simple, uh, whether you're older or not, if you just want something very simple, uh, in fact, uh, one of the

websites that was reviewing it called it rudimentary. So I mean, you know, that, that has a negative context to it, but the word rudimentary doesn't necessarily It doesn't mean negative. It's just simple and small and not complicated, you know?

Yeah, I mean, like, if you're looking for something to just video chat with friends on Facebook, listen to some music, maybe listen to a podcast, I mean, it does those things pretty well. Yeah.

Yeah, no, it does all of those things actually very well. if you're looking for it to do more than that, it's probably not the device for you. No, especially for the price. I mean, they're going to range anywhere from $129 to $279.

Yeah, I mean, like, for rudimentary— I mean, like, the price is a little high.

Yeah, so absolutely. Yeah, I mean, you're paying for an HD screen. Yes, beyond anything else. I mean, it does have a good screen on it. And so, uh, now Again, its integration with its camera is lacking on some level. But that being said, I mean, you're paying for a monitor.

Yeah.

And that can connect to the internet and do some things.

Well, and let me say this because, I mean, we're talking about how simple it is. It is simple once it's set up. You know, I could see my grandmother easily using this thing. My grandmother loves Facebook. She knows how to use it. I mean, She's great at it.

Yeah.

Setting this thing up is complicated.

Oh, is it?

Yeah. I mean, for— I mean, it's, it's not super complicated.

It's more complicated than it should be.

It's more complicated than it should be, absolutely. I mean, like, it, it's much more beyond username and password.

Well, we said it just a minute ago that many people have things already logged in through Facebook. Like, if that's the case, then you ought to be able to log into Facebook and it ought to be able to display all these other things for you, right? Like, it ought to be able to log into these things for you because it's already have, it's already got your permission to do that.

Yeah.

Right? So.

And it just keeps asking for it. It's annoying, honestly. So if you don't set it up right the first time, it'll just keep bugging you and it won't work right. And so that part of it is, you know, so at the end of the day, if you're really into Facebook, it's gonna be a great device for you. You're gonna get, you're actually gonna get some additional features out of Facebook that you don't get via the website or the app on your phone.

Okay.

Um, and you might really enjoy those features. Those features aren't really all that important to me. I don't really care all that much about seeing my face turned into a lizard face in HD. No, it's just not— it's just not on my radar.

Maybe it should be.

Maybe it could be an improvement. Um, but I mean, I do like the video chat feature. Yeah, I think that's super helpful. I like, I like the camera, the smart camera. I think that's really cool.

Yeah, it's a huge selling point.

Um, so, but other than that, it's just not a great— it's not, it's not something that I— I'm glad someone sent it to us because I, I would have been mad if I went out and bought this thing.

Yeah, yeah. And, and again, that, that's really where the rubber meets the road, like Is this something that you really need, that your life is going to be less than if you don't have it? No, I don't think so either.

Yeah, and honestly, I think I would have been just as happy with a Dot.

Yeah, because the other thing, and a lot of what a lot of people are saying is a negative, is it's got a fairly large footprint.

Yeah, it does.

I mean, it's not just like, uh, like a photo frame.

No.

Like a 10-inch photo frame. It's, it's got a fairly large—

It's got a good 3 or 4 inches underneath that screen, and it's mostly speakers.

Sure.

Um, which, I mean, for that much space, my Alexa sounds better.

Yeah, yeah. And so what you wind up doing is, is you've got this—

And what I mean, my, my tower Alexa, not my dots, right? The dots, I mean, like, they're okay. I mean, they don't sound like anything. The newer ones actually sound pretty good.

Yeah, they're a little bit better.

Um, but like my, my tower one with the subwoofer pointed down, yeah, it can't touch that.

Sure. So But, but the thing is, like, I'll tell you right now, probably one of the best places to put these things are in a kitchen.

Oh yeah, that's why we put it there, is because recipes and it's got the Food Network app and all that kind of stuff.

And, and it, it just, it's a gathering place. I mean, there's lots of reasons you would put it in a kitchen, but what is one of the most coveted things in a kitchen? It's cabinet space. Yeah, like, uh, countertop space. Yeah, counter space. Like, I, I would I don't want to have to worry about one more thing on my counter.

Yeah.

Uh, in, in, in my kitchen. So I mean, you kind of have to gauge how you're going to interact with this thing, how, you know, how much space do you actually have to, to use with it. And at the end of the day, is it really worth the $100+ that you're going to spend on it in order to just get more Facebook functionality? Yeah, my guess is the answer is no.

Yeah, for me, for me, no.

Yes, definitely not for me. I'm not about to go buy one. There's a, there's a whole lot more things that I would rather put $150 into. Yeah, then, so I mean, I would rather go out and, and buy smart plugs and, and smart light bulbs and, um, different things like this that probably are going to be used more often and, and have more functionality, honestly.

You know, and I think that's, that's probably a good point because like you're, you're you're invested in like a whole different, you know, smart space.

Yeah.

You know, through HomeKit.

Yes.

And like, it doesn't do anything for that.

No. You know, no, it doesn't.

So it integrates with Amazon technology, right? Kind of.

With one thing.

Yeah. And so like, you know, what about the Facebook user that likes HomeKit? Or the Facebook user that likes Google devices.

Yeah.

You know, and so it doesn't offer— it's not a wide palette of people that it's gonna be breaking in, I don't think.

Sure. And, and you know what, I mean, let's just say this for a minute. Like, I, I just think that one of the, one of the best things that's, that's gotten onto my phone recently is the screen time information.

Yeah.

Like, just knowing how much time I'm on the— my phone helps me gauge my week a little bit. Like, don't pick it up, don't pick it up, don't pick it up. And I think—

You know what your numbers were last week.

Exactly. It's like, I had an 8% reduction last week, let's see if I can beat that this week. It's like a game. Um, but I, I just, I think that Facebook can be one of those things that just can, just takes over your life.

Oh, absolutely.

I mean, really, what Facebook was created for, what people use it as, are a little bit different. But I mean, I love the fact that I get to keep up with friends and, and families and, you know, watching kids, uh, grow up.

Yep.

In families that I love and that I care about, that I would not get to do if I didn't have something like Facebook. It's a beautiful thing, uh, but man, it can be a rabbit hole. that is hard to get out of. It can be an addiction that's difficult to overcome. And so, you know, honestly, I don't need another device that's gonna pull me toward Facebook. Yeah, personally.

Um, well, thankfully this device doesn't even do that.

Yeah, and it doesn't. Uh, it's, it's funny, it's by Facebook for Facebook, but it doesn't really do that.

So it doesn't really have Facebook on it.

It doesn't. So it's, it's a very interesting thing. Um, and, you know, I'm sure there are people out there that love it, that have it. I'm not about to go buy one.

Yeah. I'm more interested in what they're doing with Oculus stuff right now. I think that's way cooler.

Yeah, absolutely.

I think that's probably the area where they're going to be doing more growth. I think if they could integrate this kind of a device with an Oculus, which I think they may have done some, I think that would probably be something I'd be interested in checking out. Yeah, more than this.

Yeah.

Um, but yeah, so if you're super into Facebook, check it out. You know, if you like going live on Facebook, it could be a really cool thing for you.

Yeah, especially— I mean, I could really see that for people that are— that like going live in on Facebook in their kitchen, like for cooking shows or anything like that, especially with its ability to follow you. Yeah, walking around, like all of a sudden you don't need uh, to, to worry about camera angles or, you know, setting up in a certain area. It does all the— takes all that guesswork out, right? Um, I mean, because it doesn't just follow you, like it'll zoom in and zoom out and those sorts of things. So if you're doing that sort of thing, honestly, it may be a great investment.

Could be, yeah. I mean, if you're operating a business on, on Facebook that sort of relies on you going live, this might be a, a good investment for sure, just because it's gonna, it's gonna You know, you're not gonna have to worry about tripods, you're not gonna worry about your phone, you're not— you can just do it through this device.

Yeah, the flexibility is, is really helpful for that function alone.

Yeah, so which, I mean, that, that could have been the whole reason they built it for all— maybe so.

But that's not necessarily what they're marketing though. Yeah, um, but it's definitely a cool function.

Yeah, but I mean, if you, if you want to check it out, we'll have the link for the device up in the, uh, and there's the 3 different models.

There's 4 if you include the TV, right? So it's got the Mini, the Portal, and then the Plus.

Okay, so we'll put the links up to, uh, all those devices.

Yeah.

In the show notes.

Absolutely.

Anything else, Kev?

Man, I think that's it. I, you know, say this every single week, but we really do appreciate you listening. Thanks for downloading our episode. Share it with your friends. Make sure that you're subscribed so you get all of the brand-new content that we put out every single Tuesday. Thanks for sticking with us. And until then, we'll see you next time.

See ya!