Facebook Portal (2019) Review & Rating - PCMag.com

Facebook Portal (2019) Review & Rating - PCMag.com
How "The Portal" Is Using Meditation to Change the World - Thrive Global
Fall Music On Main Scheduled In Round Rock - Round Rock, TX Patch
Aznavour Musical Bio by Taleen Babayan at El Portal Theatre - The Armenian Mirror-Spectator

Posted: 31 Oct 2019 10:01 AM PDT

Facebook's new $179 Portal checks off a lot of the wish-list items we had for last year's model. The video-calling smart display now lets you make WhatsApp calls and shows Instagram photos, and it works well with Amazon's Alexa. But given the company's perpetual political drama, putting a dedicated Facebook camera in your living room might still be too much for many people. That equation changes when we talk about putting it in your office, though, and Facebook may have (accidentally) made one of the better corporate telepresence devices you can buy.

Models, Design, and Setup

The Facebook Portal now comes in four forms. We tested the $179, 10-inch Portal, which looks like a digital picture frame (and acts like one, most of the time). There's also a $129, 8-inch Portal Mini, which has pretty much the same capabilities but is smaller. Last year's 15.6-inch, $279 Portal+ remains on the market, and it's the best choice for a small conference room. Not on sale yet, but coming soon, there's a $149 Portal TV set-top box that will turn any TV into a big-screen for Alexa and video calls.

The Portal is handsome in black or white, nicely built, and easy to set up. The attached kickstand contains the power cord, which plugs into the wall with a dedicated power adapter. The 10-inch model measures 7.03 by 10.23 by 5.56 inches (HWD). There's a 13-megapixel camera on the front, as well as a 10-inch HD screen. Between the front tweeters and the rear woofer, it boasts a total of 10 watts of audio power.

You set it up by attaching it to a 2.4GHz or 5GHz Wi-Fi network and entering your Messenger or Whatsapp account details—you need a Messenger or Whatsapp account to make it work. The default home screen shows your Messenger contacts. You can flag some as favorites, which also affects the photos you see in the digital picture frame mode.

As a digital picture frame, the Portal can show your Facebook photos, your Instagram photos, Facebook photos from your favorite contacts, and photos you upload directly through a smartphone app. You don't have to use all, or any, of these categories. It can also get a little nudgey about pushing you to talk to people it identfies as currently online, another option you can turn off.

Video Calling

You can call any Messenger or Whatsapp contacts by saying, "Hey Portal, call (contact)," or selecting them from an on-screen contact book. They don't have to have a Portal; they can be on a phone. You can also do multi-party calls here. With Messenger, you can add up to six people; with Whatsapp, you can add up to three. You can't cross the Messenger/Whatsapp barrier.

The Portal's coolest feature is still the Smart Camera, which I think of as a personal Ken Burns effect. The camera pans and zooms to find you as you move around your room, fitting you rather than you having to fit the camera. If one person in a group is talking, the camera will often focus on them, and then switch angles when they're done for a cinematic effect. No other smart display does this.

The Portal then layers fun AR features on top of your chats. You can get a mustache, have a lazy cat sitting on your head, or turn into a dragon or werewolf, all in service of fun. Cooperative AR games challenge you and your interlocutor not to smile, or try to get you to catch falling cats by moving your heads. It's all silly and childish, but that's fine by me as so much of the device's pitch is about connecting kids with their faraway relatives.

The four mics are also designed to capture any audio in your room, which is great when you're the only thing making noise in a room, but not so great when you aren't. The mics make a faraway speaker sound much closer; they also make people speaking elsewhere in the room pretty audible. I had no problem with the Portal hearing my voice, whether for a voice call or for issuing an Alexa command, from a 30-foot distance in a quiet room.

I called two friends with Messenger on their phones, one other Portal in the same office, and an official Portal at Facebook. Those all went fine except for the call to Facebook, which had Bluetooth problems and audio lag versus the video image. Facebook says those things shouldn't be happening and suggested I was having hardware problems, but I wonder if it has more to do with network problems between my corporate network and Facebook's.

The Portal has a page of "apps." They include Facebook Watch, which contains a lot of mediocre video you don't want to watch; an Android-standard web browser; a small collection of Facebook games including Words With Friends; iHeartRadio, Pandora, and Spotify; and Story Time, the Portal's interactive app where you can tell a story to a child you're making a video call with.

The browser lets you create a YouTube link that summons the desktop YouTube page, so you can log in with your Google account and show YouTube videos. There's no email or calendar connectivity, and you can't make regular phone calls or send or receive text messages (even in Messenger or Whatsapp).

Alexa Support

I'm not a big fan of devices with multiple voice assistants, and Portal has this problem. It's a solid Alexa device, but it also has a much less successful "Hey Portal" voice assistant. "Hey Portal" is supposed to trigger apps and answer simple queries like time and weather, but honestly, the only thing it's good for is starting video calls because Alexa can't do that. "Hey Portal" queries are also, unless you opt out, actually recorded and reviewed by human Facebook contractors to improve the company's voice recognition.

Move over to a different tech giant's software, though, and you'll have a fine old time. The Portal acts as an Alexa smart device, so you can ask for Alexa functions or skills and see the results reflected on the screen. You can request tunes from Amazon Music by playlist or song, you can check stock prices from TD Ameritrade, or you can ask for recipes from AllRecipes. Smart home skills that show camera images on a smart display work, too. The Portal is, in a lot of ways, like an Echo Show.

There are a few hiccups in the Alexa implementation. Skills that use "tell skill to do action" syntax have to be broken into two parts: "open skill" and then "ask skill for action." You also don't get Amazon's Drop In calling or the ability to ask for Amazon video content on the screen.

As a speaker, this is not designed to be an audio masterpiece. There's bass but it's muddy. Facebook optimized for room-filling volume without harshness or distortion, and it got that, but comfortable voices on a video call aren't as demanding as broad-spectrum music. Classical and electronic music both lack richness through the Portal, but at least they didn't sound harsh. At maximum volume it doesn't distort, and it's too loud to sit comfortably close to.

Options when you aren't using the main speaker are a bit weak. There's no wired headphone jack, and I had uneven experiences when using a Bluetooth headset—a video call to Facebook became choppy and distorted over the headset, although I didn't experience that with music or with other calls.

Oh, Facebook

But let's not forget that this is Facebook's Portal.

Facebook has made a pivot to "privacy" in the past year, pledging to encrypt Messenger connections and reinforcing that WhatsApp stays encrypted. But there is still deep suspicion of a company whose revenue is based on behaviorally targeted advertising and which has done a notoriously poor job of preventing its public News Feed from becoming overrun by false, politically radicalizing content.

Following the negative news stories about Facebook, about how it uses and abuses data, feels like a full-time job. Some hot recent headlines: Facebook may have misled much of the media industry and wasted tens of millions of marketing dollars by demanding a "pivot to video" based on inflated video viewing data for two years. 47 state attorneys general are now investigating Facebook for antitrust violations. There's also something about Breitbart, and probably something about Donald Trump.

Over and over, Facebook staff reminded me of how the Portal is "built for privacy." WhatsApp calls are end-to-end encrypted. Messenger calls will be, too, in January. The camera switch "electrically disconnects" the camera so Facebook can't turn it on even if it wants to. You can set the device to not send "Hey Portal" queries to Facebook, and you can set it to ask for authentication over and over again.

As we were writing this review, security researcher Jane Wong discovered a flaw where sending an "arbitrary Facebook server request" can add public albums from non-friends to a Portal. Facebook says it fixed this bug within 24 hours. That's good, but most Americans' trust in Facebook is shattered even as they're still addicted to it. Until the company rebuilds that trust, it's going to have a hard time getting people to agree to put a Facebook screen in their house.

Best for Workplaces

The most exciting aspect of the Portal, in my view, is that it will work with Workplace accounts starting in December. That makes it a terrific, easy-to-use solution for remote workers conferencing in.

Workplace is Facebook's enterprise product, and it has so far managed to avoid the various issues Facebook's consumer product has run into. Companies pay to use it, companies own their data, and that data doesn't leak into and hasn't been used in the broader consumer product.

With the ability to do seven-party group video calls, the 15.6-inch Portal+ could be every remote worker or remote small office's best friend. Turn it on to be "in the office," and turn it off to be "not in the office." Use it for music when you're not taking meetings. Move around your home office freely while taking a meeting. Don't mess around with PC-based solutions that crash, or with the nightmare that is configuring a Poly. It's a terrific corporate connectivity solution.

Comparisons and Conclusions

In an imaginary world where Facebook is uncontroversial and benign, an Alexa-compatible smart display that shows your Instagram photos, plays YouTube videos, and does Whatsapp video calling would be a slam dunk.

But Facebook isn't uncontroversial and benign. It's under investigation by 47 states and its executives are perpetually in some sort of political hot seat. Any given year it appears to be leaking or lying to someone. It freaks people out. It freaks me out, and I'm on it all the time. One of the Amazon Echo Show models, or even the Google Nest Hub Max, just seems less troubling.

If your company uses Workplace, on the other hand, the Portal is among the best telepresence options we've seen, and one we recommend. It's all a rather interesting dichotomy, much like Facebook itself.

How "The Portal" Is Using Meditation to Change the World - Thrive Global

Posted: 31 Oct 2019 08:02 AM PDT

When I look around and wonder what it would take for real change, individual and systemic, I see the magic pieces as being the heart and the mind. However, depending on our personal life experiences and the barriers we put up, or the chaos and the busyness, they can be hard nuts to crack. But if you had to find a way to crack open the hearts and minds of every person in the world because our very existence depended on it, what would you do? I feel like that's the tension of the times we're living through, and why a project like The Portal is important now.

Tom Cronin and I came into this collaboration with our personal philosophies, mission, intention, skillset, and so on, and I feel like it's where those diverge and intersect that have led to the film unfolding as it has. The Portal is originally Tom's project, inspired because years ago he hit a crisis point that forced him to make some radical changes in his behaviour. His crisis and transformation (with meditation being the tool to unlock that change) systematically disrupted and upgraded myriad aspects of his personal world, and led him to his mission: one billion people sitting in stillness daily. It also unlocked a desire to create a transformational film that would showcase the power of meditation, and take it to a wider audience.

I've always worked in film, media and music and, over time, I've come to understand that what really underlies the work I've been doing is creating expansive experiences that can bring people together, draw us into flow state, and tap us into our greatest human potential. I'm fascinated by the shamanic power of media to support communion, transformation and evolution.

To create The Portal, Tom and I came together on transformational tools, and human experiences, as powerful ways to help jettison us all into the next stage of our individual and collective evolution. Along the way the one billion people became seven billion as we started to really envision the cumulative impact of all the people on the planet. As filmmakers and individuals, the question we're exploring in various ways through this project is: How can we really change our world?

Tom and I know from our own personal experience the benefits that meditation offers and the power inherent in the practice, but how does that translate to story? So to take an early intention, and form story around it, breathe life into it in such a way that it's capable of opening a doorway to change, posed a chunky creative challenge.

Every day I kept asking myself which elements were the right ones to bring together in order to create a cinematic experience that people would come away from feeling like they actually got, on a deep visceral level, how it's possible that meditation could hold the key to a successful outcome at this time on earth. I pondered questions like: What would it bring to my life to experience the most beautiful, rich, meaningful, joyous aspects of being human, and also to feel a kindred connection with other individuals in this global community? To not be shackled by the past or enslaved to my mind? To weather the ups and downs of life with grace and buoyancy, humour and peace? To understand my special place in this jigsaw of existence?

I feel like that's what we're really getting at when we contemplate the impact that deep transformative practices, like meditation, could have when incorporated en masse into people's lives. In the process of saving ourselves from the clutches of our own emotional and life baggage, we activate a ripple effect that changes our world. We wanted to translate that into an experience for people during the film. I see the film and book as immersive explorations of ways to unlock heart and mind, and to disrupt humans out of our current existential malaise, in order to help reboot a system and civilisation at breaking point. It's done in a way that highlights the beauty of existence and of a person's unique human story, to really bring us alive.

The Portal is a planting of seeds. It's not very useful to tell other people what they should think or believe. We have all been so subjected to dogma, ideology and indoctrination for so long that those modes of transferring ideas among people and generations is losing effectiveness. If we can strip that away and leave only the rawness of life and universal human experiences like emotions, pain, love and joy bubbling up (that we can all relate to) then I think we have a chance of communicating a message that transcends words. I think we can create a space for lasting transformation.

For several years now I've watched this project draw people into it's vortex of love, healing and growth. I think that's an undeniable aspect of the tentacles of meditation that reach so deeply, and so holistically, that nothing remains untouched. And so through the film as a tool, life as a tool, and meditation as a tool, we can start to achieve that 'stripping away', and watch the ripple spread. This could be our time to break an existing framework, disrupt the system and start fresh, and, at the same time, truly understanding and connecting with ourselves, and each other, more deeply.

Imagine what life will be like when 7 billion people go through the portal.

Fall Music On Main Scheduled In Round Rock - Round Rock, TX Patch

Posted: 29 Oct 2019 11:14 PM PDT

ROUND ROCK, TX — The Fall Music on Main concert is scheduled today at Prete Plaza in downtown Round Rock.

The Oct. 30 event is set to take place from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the plaza located on 221 East Main St. The recurring event is free and open to the public, and music lovers are encouraged to take along their lawn chairs and blankets. Parking is free.

"Music on Main is an annual tradition where families and friends gather downtown on beautiful fall nights to hear good music and relax under the Texas sky," city officials described on the municipal portal. In addition to music, a snow cone and pretzel vendor will be available along with hot chocolate, a face painter/balloon artist and a small artist fair.

The South Austin Moonlighters are scheduled to take the stage. The remainder of the concert series will feature Derrick Davis Band on Nov. 6 and The Belle Sounds on Nov. 13.

For more information, visit downtownroundrocktexas.com.

The bands that will be featured this year range from professional local groups to upcoming regional entertainers. Fall Music on Main will offer a snow cone & pretzel vendor with hot chocolate, a face painter and balloon artist and a small artist faire. Parking is free.

Aznavour Musical Bio by Taleen Babayan at El Portal Theatre - The Armenian Mirror-Spectator

Posted: 31 Oct 2019 05:50 AM PDT

HOLLYWOOD — His music became the stuff of legend. His journey to worldwide acclaim the touchpoints of the so-called American Dream. The son of Armenian Genocide survivors, with no formal education or musical training, Charles Aznavour went on to become one of the most popular singers in the world. His remarkable life, pitted with ups and downs, along with his most memorable songs will be on stage in Los Angeles this fall.

On the heels of its compelling cabaret-style debut at the Hotel Café, "Charles: A Bio-Musical on the Life and Songs of Charles Aznavour," will be on the mainstage of the El Portal Theatre in the heart of the NoHo Arts District on Saturday, November 9.

Mariette Soudjian and Mariette Tachdjian

Written by Taleen Babayan, "Charles" traces key points in the musician's life, charting the personal and professional struggles the singer faced on his climb to becoming an iconic award-winning entertainer throughout the course of his eight decade career in his beloved France and across the globe.

From his humble beginnings, to his perseverance as a working musician in occupied France during World War II, to overcoming crippling criticism, to his creative spark with Edith Piaf, the 90-minute show serves as an homage to his legacy as an integral member of France's Golden Age of Music, while capturing the charismatic and shining spirit he embodied as a singer, lyricist, actor, diplomat and humanitarian. Based on Aznavour's two autobiographies and a number of primary and secondary sources, his unconventional life emerges on stage in a unique narrative punctuated by live musical performances, which was praised by audience members at the Hotel Café debut on October 12.

"The bio-musical play on the life of Charles Aznavour is a deeply felt, heartwarming and inspirational experience," said attendee Veronica Zorigian. "Taleen Babayan directs this play with grace and deep emotional capacity."

Produced by Boundaryless Productions under the direction of Taleen Babayan and musical supervision of Harout Soghomonian, "Charles" features Maurice Soudjian and Bernard C. Bayer, who both portray Charles Aznavour, alongside Mariette Soudjian, who makes a guest appearance as Edith Piaf.

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