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Meta enables ADB on deprecated Portal devices [video]

116 points

by jenders

3 hours ago

| past

| 11 comments

| fb.watch

| HN

https://developers.meta.com/horizon/blog/build-apps-for-port...

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HDBaseT

2 hours ago

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Apparently a message prompting users that they can enable 'adb' on their devices by navigating to "Settings > Debug > ADB Enabled" has existed for over a month although majority have been unsuccessful due to the Setting not existing! [0] [1]

[0] - https://x.com/PiunikaWeb/status/2053803917910376584 [1] - https://www.reddit.com/r/FacebookPortal/comments/1t55mee/unl...

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jenders

2 hours ago

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I’m very interested to see if this develops until a full bootloader unlock. Picked up CIB hardware on eBay for $70. A general purpose Linux kiosk for this price is a no brainer.

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someperson

1 hour ago

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Yep Meta Portal is very very nice industrial design

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petterroea

28 minutes ago

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It is sad that it takes a Meta developer having some fun to realize they should open up ADB.

This isn't the repairability and reuseability of old devices mindset people have been begging for. This is some guy using internal privileges to having some fun, and deciding the rest of us should get a piece of the fun as well.

This is a "happy story" in the same way it is a "happy story" when some kid successfully fundraises a classmate's cancer treatment because the healthcare system neglects them.

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jenders

7 minutes ago

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boz is the CTO

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zbowling

2 hours ago

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The blog post with the details on our update today which is a bit more complete than Boz's video: https://developers.meta.com/horizon/blog/build-apps-for-port...

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HDBaseT

2 hours ago

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Wow, this feels weird.

It reads like "hey guys, we don't care about this product anymore. Although you can continue to support it using AI because we're too lazy"

Respect to Meta for unlocking ADB though.

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hgoel

2 hours ago

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This really sounds like a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" type of comment.

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themafia

23 minutes ago

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I guess they'll have to dry their crying eyes with the stacks of money they have.

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wtetzner

30 minutes ago

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I'm pretty sure they've been EOL for a while now.

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zbowling

2 hours ago

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The post just explains along with the new ADB access, you can now also build your own hacks or port existing apps to run on your Portal using newly published AI skills (originally built for Meta Quest/Horizon OS) that document the technical specifics about the device and certain limitations that an agent then can use to build something quickly.

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donpdonp

11 minutes ago

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for those who aren't familitar with Meta's product line: "Meta Portal (also known as Portal) is a discontinued brand of smart displays and videophones released in 2018 by Meta." a tablet with feet, focused on video-calls.

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United857

58 minutes ago

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Finally some good news from Meta for a change

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gregwebs

2 hours ago

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Is this the same Portal device that they disabled every feature on other than Messenger and WhatsApp calls that I can now only use as a bluetooth speaker?

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itissid

2 hours ago

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Yep and the speaker is not half bad! It has good hardware. Its a shame they could not spin it off to anyone else(not for lack of trying) before they were "forced" to kill it because, basically, meta's stock was at 90$ at the end of 2022 and everyone was just spewing a derivative of the statement: "Focus on extremely short term profitability else your(heavily) stock compensated employees will all leave."

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_fzslm

1 hour ago

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Nice. I have a 3rd gen Echo Show 8 that's collecting dust and I direly wish I could sideload an actually useful UI onto it, but there aren't any methods of doing so yet.

Can't wait until Mythos is public so I can set it on pwning the damn thing.

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chrisweekly

1 hour ago

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ha! that's the first such take on mythos I've seen

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butvacuum

36 minutes ago

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it'll be interesting for sure. I don't mean to be discourging- but it seems like taking a swing at an Echo is a right of passage in reverse engineering circles.

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TimTheTinker

45 minutes ago

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Apple Desktop Bus? That's a really old peripheral standard...

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pm90

2 hours ago

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can anyone paste a copy for those without meta accounts

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Barbing

12 minutes ago

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"Build Apps for Your Portal with AI"

Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20260605034512/https://developer... / Text: https://pastebin.com/Y2gZx3Pn

> Andrew Bosworth (Boz) - 7h - "The dev tools we shipped last week for Quest also work on Portal devices! Here is a little home hub I vibe coded a few months back as we started to play with this. Build one yourself!"

Video mirror - expires in 3d: https://storage.to/hJe8xld92

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jenders

2 hours ago

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wfm without a meta account but here is the direct link: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1561665975384013

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LZ_Khan

55 minutes ago

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totally forgot i bought one of those pieces of junk

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nar001

2 hours ago

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Interesting, does that mean we might get root support on the old unsupported Quest devices too? The Q1 is already discontinued and no more updates yet still locked down, and they did something similar for the Ofulus go, providing a rooted boot image for it

Next would be recovery tools too, so they're not paperweights

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whycome

1 hour ago

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What’s this about the go? What are the options for that device?

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simpleintheory

54 minutes ago

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https://developers.meta.com/horizon/blog/unlocking-oculus-go...