Facebook is one of the most useful and powerful contact books, but long ago it opted against building a phone, and for good reasons. One being that the risk of it being a complete failure was quite high with the Windows Phone and the iOS/Android duopoly looking impenetrable. Another being it would have put Facebook in direct competition with Google and Apple, which would have risked an ugly conflict between them and the two biggest platforms on which the company depends. But, as every company wants to grow, so did Facebook. The company came back around to the idea of developing its own hardware, and in a way came back to the idea of a phone. The start of this journey began with the acquisition of the Oculus, which turned Facebook into a manufacturer of virtual-reality gaming gear (VR). And now comes the Portal and Portal+, a video phone that runs on Facebook Messenger. Jake Kastrenakes from The Verge has a breakdown of the gadget: “The Portal is designed to simplify video chatting by having a wide-angle camera capable of identifying your body, then tracking you as you move around the room. It makes for more comfortable chatting than holding a phone up to your face for extended periods of time. Facebook says the Portal is designed to create the sense that you’re sharing one big room with the people you’re talking to, and considers the chats you have on the device an augmented reality experience.” With the Portal, you don’t have to hold, aim, or direct anything. Once a chat starts up, the device’s camera will automatically find people in the room and keep them in frame. If multiple people are in a room, the camera will use a wide angle to fit them all in. If there’s only one person, the camera will zoom