Technologies

Amazon’s Starlink Satellite Service Rival Has a Rocket Launch Set for Next Week

The first planned launch was scrapped due to the weather, but Project Kuiper has a new date.

Amazon is planning to launch 27 low-Earth orbit satellites early next week as part of Project Kuiper to provide satellite broadband. The date is set for Monday, April 28, between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. ET (4 and 6 p.m. PT), barring weather or other factors impacting launch.

Poor weather forced Amazon to abandon its original rocket launch date of April 9. «Weather is observed and forecast NO GO for liftoff within the remaining launch window at Cape Canaveral this evening,» United Launch Alliance said at the time. «The stubborn cumulus clouds and persistent winds make liftoff not possible within the available window.»

The launch mission, KA-01 or Kuiper Atlas 1, will be on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket and will take place at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. You’ll be able to watch the rocket launch live on the project’s mission page or on YouTube.

It’ll be a big step forward for the project, which Amazon announced in 2019 with promises of a $10 billion investment. Now, the company is poised to enter the race to provide satellite internet service, a space currently dominated by SpaceX’s Starlink, which has about 7,000 satellites. Amazon’s plans call for 3,200 satellites to be deployed over 80 launches. The company intends to provide internet service with this technology later this year.

More competition will improve satellite internet services

The literal space race, which includes Starlink, Amazon and other companies such as Viasat, Hughesnet, Eutelsat and China’s SpaceSail, could mean more internet service availability in far-flung and rural areas with limited broadband options. Though Starlink is the leader in space, some of these other companies are continuing to launch satellites and working to deploy high-speed internet in more markets, such as Brazil. With more players in the market, that could mean faster and cheaper internet in more areas, although whether that actually bears out for consumers remains to be seen.

Mahdi Eslamimehr, executive vice president at Quandary Peak Research and adjunct professor at the Department of Computer Science at USC, said Amazon is well-positioned to compete with Starlink. «Amazon has made extensive launch agreements with major providers such as ULA, Arianespace, Blue Origin, and even SpaceX itself, positioning Kuiper as a major challenger due to its expansive infrastructure and significant resources.»

He said, «While Starlink currently enjoys clear market leadership, it faces increasing competition from well-capitalized and strategically agile competitors, specifically from China, suggesting the market will become considerably more competitive in the near future.»

So far, Eslamimehr said, Amazon’s satellite efforts have been promising and successful, at least in the prototype stages. The company has also been testing Amazon Web Services in space. «These developments collectively underscore Amazon’s robust entry into the satellite internet market and reflect positive early momentum in its overall space strategy.»

Beyond how it fares against Starlink and other companies, the Amazon satellite launches are significant in other ways. Eslamimehr said, «Project Kuiper isn’t just about competition; it’s positioned as a critical step toward closing the global digital divide, promising to deliver high-speed internet to underserved communities worldwide.»

Correction, April 4: An earlier version of this story misspelled the name of the USC professor and Quandary Peak Research executive vice president. His name is Mahdi Eslamimehr.

Technologies

Trump Phone Looks Different, Costs More and Won’t Be Made in the US, Report Shows

The T1 looks different (again), and its specs and pricing have changed, according to a model handset shown in a video call to The Verge.

Trump Mobile executives have shown off a handset they say is a near-production model of the T1 phone to The Verge, according to a report Friday afternoon. Among other appearance changes, the smartphone appears to have a completely different camera array design than the one still shown on the T1 purchase page.

The Verge says it spoke with two Trump Mobile executives over a video call, where they held up the phone so it could be seen. The interview follows doubts about whether the phone will ever be released, after its second advertised launch date of the end of 2025 came and went without any status updates.

As of Feb. 6, the phone’s webpage still lists it as being released «later this year,» which is the same thing it said last year.

Trump Mobile launched in June last year with a $47.45-a-month mobile phone plan, and currently sells refurbished Apple and Samsung phones ranging from $369 to $629 while the wait for the T1 phone continues.

The Trump phone, initially announced to be made in the US, was supposed to launch in August 2025. But when it became clear that domestic large-scale smartphone manufacturing would not be possible, Trump Mobile dropped the «made in the US» claim.

Now, the site simply calls the phone «Proudly American» without specifying what that means for a device manufactured overseas.

The site is still accepting $100 deposits on the phone. The website claims it will have a 6.25-inch punch-hole AMOLED screen, a 50MP main rear camera with two 2MP lenses, a 16MP front-facing camera, a 5,000-mAh battery, a fingerprint sensor, face unlock and 256GB of expandable storage.

According to the model that The Verge saw on its video call this week, however, the screen looks a little larger and has a waterfall display with curved edges, as well as a vertical camera array. That one will reportedly run on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 7-series processor, feature 512GB of storage, and include a 50MP front-facing camera. According to the report, the T1 logo will also disappear before launch, though the phone will keep the American flag imagery.

It’ll also now cost more, according to the report. Those who have already put down a $100 deposit are locked into the $499 total price, but everyone else who wants this golden Trump phone will pay an unknown amount more. It will be under $1,000, the report says.

According to the executives speaking to The Verge, the phone has been delayed because the company decided to take its time and «skip our first initial entry-level phone that we were going to kind of introduce and be quick to the market.» They told The Verge it’s being made in a «favored nation» with «final assembly» in Florida. It’s unclear what qualifies another nation as «favored» to handle most of the assembly of the T1 phone.

There’s no word yet on the T1 phone’s launch date, but its sellers are reportedly eyeing a March release window.

You can read the full report on The Verge, including photos of the phone as it currently looks. Trump Mobile did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Technologies

Apple’s AI Health Coach Project May Need a Wellness Check

The company’s ambitious plans to introduce a virtual health coach may be going back to the drawing board, according to a report.

Apple is scaling back and rethinking its ambitious plans to introduce an AI-powered health coach, according to a Bloomberg report by Mark Gurman citing anonymous sources privy to the company’s plans.

The project, known inside Apple as Mulberry, was first reported last year, with the company expected to roll together health-related AI features as a coach or assistant. But now, Bloomberg reports, that project will be broken down into individual features introduced over time, as it has done with tools such as the sleep apnea and hearing tests added to Apple Watch and Apple AirPods.

A representative for Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Bloomberg’s sources point to a change in leadership over Apple’s health technology. Veteran services head Eddy Cue is overseeing those projects and addressing pressure from competitors pushing into the health space, including Oura and Peloton as well as tech giants like Google and OpenAI, which just launched ChatGPT Health.

(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in April, alleging that it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)

Apple was also said to have built a studio for a revamped health services app that would have included virtual and video wellness instructions, and integration with existing health tools and Apple devices. It is likely that some of that content and software will still be released publicly, just not in one package, according to Bloomberg.

Technologies

Here’s Why Taylor Swift’s Opalite Music Video Isn’t on YouTube Yet

The video is now available on Apple Music and Spotify, but it isn’t landing on YouTube for a couple more days.

YouTube may still be where many people instinctively go to watch music videos, but when Taylor Swift dropped her video for Opalite on Friday, it was noticeably absent from the platform. In fact, it won’t be landing on YouTube until Sunday, two days after its release on other streaming platforms.

So, why is the Opalite music video only available on Apple Music and Spotify Premium right now? It likely has to do with a disagreement between YouTube and Billboard, which ranks the most popular songs and albums of the week.

In December, Billboard shifted its charting methodology so paid and subscription-based streams are weighted even more favorably than ad-supported streams. Billboard started weighting paid streams higher than ad-supported ones in 2018. This most recent shift narrows that ratio from 1:3 to 1:2.5, putting numbers from platforms like YouTube at more of a disadvantage.

Following the change, YouTube posted a statement about its dispute with Billboard, calling the charting company’s methodology «an outdated formula.» It added, «This doesn’t reflect how fans engage with music today and ignores the massive engagement from fans who don’t have a subscription…We’re simply asking that every stream is counted fairly and equally, whether it is subscription-based or ad-supported—because every fan matters and every play should count.»

YouTube said that starting Jan. 16, 2026, its data would «no longer be delivered to Billboard or factored into their charts.»

For artists like Taylor Swift who count on early streams to boost their Billboard rankings, that could make YouTube a less appealing option for debuting new content. So the Opalite video will still be making its way to YouTube, but you’ll have to wait until Sunday, Feb. 8, at 8 a.m. ET to watch it there. Representatives for Swift, YouTube and Billboard did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

YouTube has an ad-supported streaming service as well as a paid one called YouTube Premium. However, even YouTube Premium subscribers can’t see the Opalite music video on Friday. (I’m a subscriber and can confirm it’s nowhere to be found.) According to Statista, in March 2025, YouTube had 125 million paid subscribers across its Premium and Music services. (YouTube Music is included in its Premium subscription.) That pales in comparison with the estimated 2.5 billion total users on YouTube, the majority of whom still rely on that ad-supported offering.

It remains to be seen whether or when YouTube and Billboard will mend their affairs and whether, in the words of Taylor Swift in Opalite, «this is just a temporary speed bump.»