The fashion-forward adventure Infinity Nikki is finally coming to Steam on April 29, complete with its iconic photo mode. The Steam version launches alongside a major update called Bubble Season that brings some new features to the game on all platforms.

First and foremost, Bubble Season will introduce co-op play. This two-player mode lets a pair of friends explore the entire game world. There will be unique co-op puzzles and new escort missions.

The update brings a new area and, of course, a whole bunch of new outfits to collect. Publisher Papergames is also bringing back some old outfits from previous seasons, for those who missed the boat. There’s even a new fashion runway gameplay mechanic with new interactions for photo mode.

Finally, Bubble Season adds a new dye mechanic, which changes outfit colors. We don’t know exactly how this will work, but it looks to add even more customization options. Again, all of these features will be available on April 29 for PC, mobile and PS5.

If you're looking for a VPN to use on your next trip, or even just at home while you're streaming or gaming, ExpressVPN is one of our favorites and you can subscribe at a discount right now. ExpressVPN is offering a two-year plan plus an extra four free months for a total of $140. That's 61 percent off the typical price, and it comes out to $5 per month.

Even though you have to pay the $140 upfront, it's a solid deal — especially considering having access to a good VPN service into late 2027 sounds pretty dang nice. ExpressVPN earned a top spot on our best VPN list thanks to its speedy connections, Network Lock kill-switch feature and its support on a variety of devices including smart TVs and game consoles.

It works on a variety of devices, so this isn’t just for the living room desktop. ExpressVPN integrates with mobile gadgets, smart TVs and game consoles, among other items. It’s really the best solution for gamers who travel a lot. It also comes with an in-house password manager, which would eliminate the need for a standalone subscription.

Truly the only real downside of this service is the price. The regular cost is $13 per month, which is mighty steep. This sale alleviates this concern, at least for 28 months. Spending $5 per month for a VPN of this caliber is something of a no-brainer.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

The Google Pixel Buds Pro 2 are on sale right now for $179, which is a discount of $50. Just head on over to Wellbots and pop in the code ENGAD50 to score the deal.

This is Google’s latest and greatest audio product and easily made our list of the best wireless earbuds. They are smaller and more comfortable than the previous version, which is great. Despite the product shrinkage, the sound has also been improved. The bass is punchy and the highs are crisp.

The battery life is also slightly improved when compared to the original earbuds. You can expect eight hours of use with ANC on, but this increases to 30 hours when you consider the included charging case. These are the company’s first earbuds with a Tensor chip, which allows for ultra-low latency audio processing and multi-path signal handling.

Other perks include conversation detection, multipoint Bluetooth and the ability to customize what long-pressing the button does. These earbuds can also automatically switch between devices linked to a Google account, which is great for Android users but doesn’t do much for Apple fans.

For those on a serious budget, the Google Pixel Buds A-Series earbuds are also $50 off via Wellbots. Enter the same ENGAD50 code to bring the price down to just $49.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

Bowers & Wilkins is back with another pair of high-end wireless headphones. The Px7 S3 looks like an improvement over the previous release in every major way. The company’s calling it the "most advanced wireless headphone" it has ever made.

To that end, this model features re-engineered drive units, dedicated headphones amplifiers and "greatly-upgraded" active noise cancellation technology. Bowers & Wilkins says that every aspect of these headphones have been redesigned, except for the cone. The new drive units should improve resolution and dynamics, all while delivering lower distortion. These units are powered by discrete headphones amplifiers, a first for the company’s over-ear headphone line.

The Px7 S3 integrates with both the aptX TM Adaptive 24/96 wireless platform and Qualcomm’s aptX Lossless technology. This optimizes sound quality for high-resolution streaming services like Tidal. Overall, the headphones offer 24-bit/96kHz high-resolution audio.

These cans feature eight microphones located around the periphery of each ear cup. They work together to deliver enhanced ANC and help eliminate unwanted noise while making phone calls. The company boasts that the battery life maxes out at around 30 hours per charge, but we’ll have to see how that works out in real life.

Bowers & Wilkins

The physical design has received an overhaul. The company promises a slimmer profile and an improved fit, thanks to memory foam ear cups. The included carry case is also more compact.

Bowers & Wilkins has redesigned its Music app to accompany this release. The app allows for instantaneous access to platforms like Tidal, but also includes a five-band EQ with preset memory. For the app-averse, there are physical controls on each ear cup. The company says that spatial audio is coming to this device, but not until later this year.

The Px7 S3 headphones will be available in three colors, including black, blue and white. Now onto the bad news. Bowers & Wilkins has yet to reveal pricing and availability. There’s a notification page that indicates they’re likely to be priced at $429 when they release. But that’s subject to change due to the ongoing uncertainty regarding Trump’s tariffs.

The EU will be mandating new labels on smartphones and tablets that indicate how repairable the device is. These labels will also include ratings for energy efficiency and durability. They will start showing up on devices on June 20 and will be similar to pre-existing ones for home appliances and TVs.

The labels display a product’s energy efficiency rating on a scale from A to G and will also display battery life and the number of available charge cycles. There will be letter grades for durability and repairability, in addition to an IP rating for dust and water-resistance.

European Commission

Covered products also include cordless landline phones, but smartphones with rollable displays are exempted. This is fairly odd because, well, there aren’t any rollable phones available for consumers just yet. Windows-based tablets will be covered by a separate mandate for computers.

This isn’t the only change the EU has announced regarding device sales. Hardware will now have to meet new "ecodesign requirements" to be sold in the region. This includes a requirement to make any applicable spare parts available for repair.

Other ecodesign requirements include batteries that retain at least 80 percent of their capacity after 800 charging cycles and scratch and drop protections that exceed minimum standards. Finally, manufacturers must provide OS updates within six months of the source code becoming available.

The wait is (kind of) almost over. Ghost of Yōtei will be available for PS5 on October 2. This is a sequel to the 2020 hit Ghost of Tsushima and was first announced last year. It’s a PS5 exclusive, as it’s developed by Sony-owned Sucker Punch.

It doesn’t follow the story of Ghost of Tsushima. Rather, it’s an original adventure with new characters that's set in a new era. Ghost of Yōtei takes place in Hokkaido, Japan in the early 1600s. This is over 300 years after the events of the first game.

It’s still an open-world adventure, though Sony promises "even more freedom and variety than in Ghost of Tsushima." For instance, you can hunt down the six big bads in whatever order you choose. There’s a new trailer that reveals the basic story beats and some gameplay. It looks pretty darn fun.

Preorders will open up on May 2 at 10AM ET for those in the US. This being a modern console game, there are a few different editions to choose from. There’s the Standard Edition, which is just the game, that costs $70. The Digital Deluxe Edition adds in-game bonuses, like armor, weapons and costumes. That one costs $80.

Sony

The Collector’s Edition, which costs a whopping $250, comes with all of the aforementioned in-game items, but that’s just the beginning. It also ships with physical items, like replicas of the protagonist’s mask, katana and sash. Sony is calling this the best Collector’s Edition it has ever produced. All preorders, no matter which edition, receive a "unique in-game mask" and a handful of PSN avatars.

Amazon’s Project Kuiper is reportedly way behind schedule, according to an investigation by Bloomberg. This is the company’s satellite internet service, which intends to rival SpaceX and Starlink. The issue seems to be one of scale, as the company has had trouble increasing production of the actual satellites.

The reporting indicates that the Kuiper team has only managed to manufacture a few dozen of these satellites. As a comparison, there are currently over 7,000 Starlink satellites in orbit. The initial production of the Kuiper satellites was delayed until the tail-end of last year, so Amazon hasn’t had too much time to ramp things up.

Beta testing didn’t start until earlier this year. Amazon had planned for an initial launch on April 8 for 27 satellites, but that got delayed until April 28.

Project Kuiper hopes to eventually provide broadband connectivity to at least 400 million households, in addition to providing service in remote areas. However, it needs to launch over 3,000 satellites to reach that goal. Additionally, it secured a government contract with a deadline to put 1,600 satellites in orbit by next summer. Insiders suggest that it will probably have to seek an extension from the FCC.

"We’ve designed some of the most advanced communications satellites ever built, and our primary objective is to build and launch enough of them to begin delivering service to customers later this year," an Amazon spokesperson told Seeking Alpha. "Our manufacturing schedule is on track to support this target, and we’ll continue to increase our production and launch rates as we begin a full-scale deployment of our network."

It did manage to launch a pair of prototype satellites into space in late 2023. This was followed by successful tests of an optical mesh network that linked the two satellites in low Earth orbit. 

The company is scheduled to conduct a number of launches throughout the year, with help from Arianespace, Blue Origin and SpaceX. United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, will handle the April 28 launch. Amazon hasn’t indicated why satellite production has hit this hiccup. We reached out to the company and will update this post when we learn more.

WhatsApp is introducing a new feature called Advanced Chat Privacy that can block participants from sharing the contents of a conversation. This is an opt-in tool that’s available for both traditional chats and groups.

Once selected, the toolset will prevent anyone in the chat from sharing anything outside of the app. This means it’ll block all chat exports, but that’s just the beginning. The software also prevents a smartphone from auto-downloading media and will stop integration with AI assistants. Basically, what happens on WhatsApp stays on WhatsApp. However, it's unclear if it prevents screenshotting. We've reached out to Meta and will update this post when we hear back. 

The platform says this is "best used when talking with groups where you may not know everyone closely but are nevertheless sensitive in nature." It gives examples like a support group about health challenges and a chat about community organizing.

WhatsApp says this is just the first version of the tool and that it’ll be adding "more protections" in the future. It’s rolling out right now across the globe, though it could take a month or two to reach everyone. 

The platform is already known for being privacy-focused, as it uses end-to-end encryption. It also leverages related software tools like disappearing messages and chats that require device authentication.

Pinterest is testing a new prompt that warns kids to get off the app during school hours, as reported by The Verge. The pop-up warning encourages minors in the US and Canada to stop using the app and turn off notifications until the end of the day. "Focus is a beautiful thing," the prompt says. "Stay in the moment by putting Pinterest down."

This prompt only appears to kids aged 13 to 17 and only between 8AM and 3PM on weekdays. It’s a large-scale test, so Pinterest says the prompt will reach "millions" of minors. The platform says it's the first tech company to institute this kind of "proactive" feature to help kids build healthy online habits. That may be true in the world of social media, but any rabid Nintendo fan will remember the incessant prompts to take breaks in the Wii, DS and 3DS eras.

Pinterest CEO Bill Ready has also announced the company’s support of phone-free school policies. Some European countries have banned phones in schools in recent years. Here in the US, New York is close to implementing a statewide ban that’s informally called a “bell-to-bell” restriction. Several other states are in the process of developing their own bans.

To go along with this initiative, Pinterest is providing a $1 million grant to the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) to "support school leaders in creating a healthy digital culture in their schools." This money will fund task forces across a dozen states to help develop policies that “improve students’ digital wellbeing.”

Google has been paying Samsung tons of cash every month to pre-install the AI app Gemini on its smartphones, according to a report by Bloomberg. This information comes to us as part of a pre-existing antitrust case against Google.

Peter Fitzgerald, Google’s VP of platforms and device partnerships, testified in federal court that it began paying Samsung for this service back in January. The pair of companies have a contract that’s set to run at least two years.

Fitzgerald told Judge Amit Metha, who is overseeing the case, that Google provides Samsung with a monthly payout. The monetary figures are unknown, but DOJ lawyer David Dahlquist called it an "enormous sum of money in a fixed monthly payment."

This antitrust case started with an accusation that Google had been illegally abusing a monopoly over the search engine industry. Part of the testimony surrounding that case involved Google paying Apple, Samsung and other companies to ensure it was the default search engine on its devices.

Judge Mehta agreed and found that this practice constitutes a violation of antitrust law. He’s currently hearing additional testimony to decide what measures Google must take to remedy the illegal behavior, which is where this Gemini reveal comes from.

Testimony from another case involving Epic Games indicated that Google handed over $8 billion from 2020 to 2023 to ensure that Google Search, the Play Store and Google Assistant were used by default on Samsung mobile devices. A California federal judge later ruled that the company must lift restrictions that prevent rival marketplaces and billing systems. Google is in the process of appealing that ruling.

As an aside, if Google is hellbent on handing out Scrooge McDuck-sized bags of money to increase adoption rates of its generative AI app, why not give the regular people who have to actually use the bloatware some of that cash? Just saying.

Update, April 22 2025, 10:15AM ET: This story has been updated to reflect today's testimony that noted that Gemini doesn't offer advertising.