Some of its most experimental projects have been shunted over to a new division, Facebook Reality Labs, and its hardware segment has been rebranded as Portal following the launch of Facebook's home video-chat device.
He billed it as a bold bet on hardware for Facebook, which has never managed to parlay its success in the software space into physical consumer goods like Apple and Google. It was led by Regina Dugan, a former DARPA director and Google exec, who left Facebook in January after less than two years at the company.
In October, those ambitions finally came to fruition with the launch of Portal, a touch-screen video-chat device that lets users them call their friends and consume media using Facebook's software.
With the launch, Building 8's executives and hardware-focused teams transferred to a newly formed Portal team — and Building 8 was shuttered, a previously unreported development.
Rafa Camargo, who was made the head of Building 8 when Dugan left, was appointed VP of Portal when it officially launched.
Some employees still advertise themselves on LinkedIn as working for Building 8, and there are still some open job advertisements for positions at Building 8 — but this is because they haven't been updated yet, a spokesperson said.
Building 8's official Careers page on Facebook's website has been killed — but Portal's jobs page uses all its old photos.
It now holds tentpole Building 8 projects like the brain-computer interface team, which attempts to build computers that can meld with human minds.Original article