Portland area libraries

The best smart thermostats can automate the heating and cooling of your home, to ensure it's at the temperature you want when you want it. Rather than using a schedule for when your home should be heated and cooled, smart thermostats give you more control by letting you adjust the temperature from your phone even if you’re not at home. No more returning home late to find you’ve been wasting energy as the heating has been running full blast all evening. Smart thermostats also let you change the temperature with your voice, and can work with other smart home gadgets, such as smart lights and smart plugs and switches , so when you walk through the door the lights are on, your favorite songs are playing and your home is at the perfect temperature. It's not just about home automation, smart thermostats can help save energy and potentially money too. Some internet-connected thermostats use AI to identify how long it takes your home to heat up or cool down, amending your schedule … [Read more...] about Best smart thermostat 2021: save energy and money when heating your home

During today’s Resident Evil Showcase, Capcom announced that a second demo for its upcoming survival horror game, Resident Evil Village, will release on May 1st. That’s six days before the game’s official release date. Unlike the previous “Maiden” demo, this demo will be playable on all platforms the game will releases on, including PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X and S, Windows PC (via Steam), and Stadia. The demo will allow you to play for 60 minutes and explore both the village and castle areas, regardless of the platform. PS4 and PS5 users will have the option to preload the demo beginning today via the PlayStation Store. Additionally, players on these two platforms will receive early access to the demo on two separate weekends — April 17th at 5PM ET through April 18th at 4AM ET, and April 24th at 5PM ET through April 25th at 4AM ET. Each demo weekend will provide up to 30 minutes of gameplay. Capcom also released the fourth trailer for the game, which includes new footage and … [Read more...] about You can play the second demo for Resident Evil Village on May 1st, or earlier on PlayStation

Developers who have apps or games on the Oculus Store can now sell recurring subscriptions to their titles, as opposed to offering them for a one-time fee or choosing to handle the subscription process independently. This should give developers an easier, more sustainable way to offer new content, features, and tools to paid subscribers over time. Oculus told The Verge that the approval process for apps with subscriptions is similar to apps that have in-app purchases and add-ons. Oculus shared on its blog that starting today, FitXR , the hugely successful Rec Room , Tribe XR , Tripp , vSpatial , and VZfit are the first to begin operating on a subscription model in the Oculus Store — specifically, for the Quest platform versions of the apps. If you’ve purchased or downloaded any of these apps, you’ll keep whatever content you already have access to. Check out the blog for specifics on how each app will handle the jump to the subscription model and what perks each … [Read more...] about Oculus now allows developers to sell subscriptions to their Quest apps and games

The US logged another 4 million or so vaccinations Friday, bringing the total doses administered in the country over 200 million at the time of writing. Over 127 million adults—38.5 percent of the US population—have received at least one shot. Over 80 million adults—24 percent of the US population—are now fully vaccinated. The seven-day rolling average of US vaccinations per day is now around 3.35 million and the Biden administration is on track to make its latest goal of 200 million vaccinations within the first 100 days in office. Even with a current pause in use of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine, Biden officials expect availability of vaccine to remain strong. “Vaccines produced by Moderna and Pfizer are still widely available,” Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a White House COVID-19 press briefing Friday. “We continue to work with pharmacies, states, and FEMA to make sure the vaccine supply remains robust across the … [Read more...] about At 38.5% vaccinated, US may be running low on people eager for a shot

After some early COVID-19 issues, fans in a growing number of arenas have made their way back into the stands just in time for the final stretch of the 72-game NBA regular season. It's been an exciting season, with a busy trade deadline and buyout period bolstering teams across the league as the playoffs near. You don't, however, need to be in the stands or have cable TV to watch the games live. For cord-cutters who want to save some money , your best bet is to subscribe to a live TV streaming service . But that's where things get confusing. The sheer number of channels that carry live games -- local regional sports networks like the YES Network in New York and Spectrum SportsNet in LA, as well as the national feeds of ABC, ESPN, NBA TV and TNT -- means you'll have to either get a relatively expensive service or make a compromise and miss some games every week. The only way to get a full basketball experience is to have a whole litany of channels from your TV … [Read more...] about NBA streaming: Best ways to catch the rest of the 2021 season live online without cable