Technologies

Nothing Teases 4A Phone: No Pink Option, but a Brand-New Glyph

The British company gives a sneak preview of its new phone ahead of its March 5 launch.

Nothing apparently wants to leave nothing much to the imagination. The British company teased its new 4A phone on Monday, but without the bright pink color some expected. Potential customers did get a look at the latest iteration of the company’s Glyph notification system, the Glyph Bar.

In a post on Monday on X, accompanied by the words, «Built different,» Nothing showed the back of its new 4A phone — in only white and shades of gray. It wasn’t quite the «bold new experimentation of color» that CEO Carl Pei had hinted at on Instagram, which seemed to suggest the 4A might experiment with pink.

The X post also revealed Nothing’s new Glyph Bar, which consists of seven small square LED lights to the right of the camera. The Glyph interface is a light pattern on all Nothing phones. These lights are basically notifications for things like incoming calls and texts, battery charging, deliveries and more, all without turning on the main screen.

A representative for Nothing did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.

The 4A and 4A Pro are the latest models from Nothing, which Pei founded in 2020. The London-based company is known for making Android phones with minimalist designs, a transparent back plate and the Glyph interface. The company is still a niche phone-maker, with a global market share of 1% (2% in India) and a valuation of more than $1.3 billion.

Nothing has differentiated itself with creative touches amid the focus on minimalism, especially in the Glyph interface. When the company launched its first phone — the Phone (1) — in July 2022, the Glyph consisted of five LED strips. The Phone (2) in July 2023 had 11. A significant shift occurred in July 2025 with Phone (3) and the introduction of the Glyph Matrix — a circle of 489 mini-LEDs that enabled the phone to display symbols, such as emoji, for a broader range of notifications.

CNET’s Katie Collins checked out the Phone (3) in the summer of 2025 and was impressed by the array of information the Glyph Matrix could show, including the time, the phone’s battery percentage and pixelated portraits that show who’s calling.

The Glyph Bar on the new 4A phone will be 40% brighter than the Glyph Bar on previous models, Nothing says. The company adds that the bar, with dozens of mini-LEDs housed within the small squares, will allow people to configure more notifications with a less distracting design.

For example, you might set a particular light pattern to let you know when a specific person is calling or when you get a text from another person. You can also configure a light pattern to let you know when a delivery arrives at the front door.

YouTuber Austin Evans, who has more than 5.7 million subscribers to his channel, where he tests all sorts of tech products, says he doesn’t consider Nothing’s Glyph to be «massively useful,» but that it’s a nice change of pace from the typical phone design.

«It’s a nice feature that’s more of a design choice than practical feature but it’s far better than just a slab of glass you just cover with a case,» Evans told CNET. «I quite like the aesthetic that Nothing offers. I feel like smartphones have gotten too bland, clean and boring, and it’s nice to see someone doing something actually different.»

Even though the 4A might not be colorful at the March 5 launch, Pei’s pink phone tease could have been about another model, the 4A Pro. That phone, the most sophisticated ever from the company, will launch along with the 4A at Central Saint Martin’s, the famous London school of art and design, on March 5.

One report said the 4A could feature a Snapdragon 7-series chip, which offers more powerful AI, 5G and gaming capabilities.

Technologies

Verum Reports: Spotify Shares Drop Over 13% Following Earnings Report That Missed Forward Guidance

Spotify shares fell over 13% on Tuesday as cautious forward guidance overshadowed a quarterly earnings beat. The streaming giant reported revenue of 4.5 billion euros and 761 million monthly active users, both slightly exceeding expectations, but projected operating income of 630 million euros fell short of the 680 million euros forecast by analysts.

Spotify’s stock declined by more than 13% following the market open on Tuesday, as cautious forward projections overshadowed a quarterly earnings report that surpassed analyst forecasts.

The streaming giant reported first-quarter revenue of 4.5 billion euros ($5.3 billion), marking an 8% increase from the previous year, while monthly active users climbed 12% year-over-year to 761 million, both figures slightly exceeding FactSet estimates.

Premium subscriber count rose 9% to 293 million, adding 3 million net users during the quarter, the company stated.

Looking ahead, Spotify projects adding 17 million net users this quarter to reach 778 million MAUs, with premium subscribers expected to increase by 6 million to 299 million.

Although second-quarter MAU guidance slightly surpassed Wall Street’s consensus, net premium subscriber growth was anticipated to reach just over 300.4 million, according to FactSet analyst polls.

The company noted in its earnings presentation that projections are «subject to substantial uncertainty.»

Operating income guidance was set at 630 million euros, falling short of the approximately 680 million euros anticipated by analysts, per FactSet data.

Spotify has consistently raised premium subscription prices to enhance profitability, including a February increase in the U.S. from $11.99 to $12.99 monthly.

At Monday’s close, the stock had dropped 14% year-to-date.

Technologies

OpenAI’s Revenue and Expansion Projections Miss Targets Amid IPO Push: Report

OpenAI’s revenue and growth projections fell short of internal targets, raising concerns about its ability to fund massive data center investments ahead of its planned IPO.

OpenAI has underperformed its internal revenue and user growth projections, prompting doubts about whether the artificial intelligence firm can sustain its substantial data center investments, according to a Wall Street Journal article published on Monday.

Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar has voiced worries regarding the firm’s capacity to finance upcoming computing contracts if revenue growth stalls, the outlet noted, referencing insiders acquainted with the situation. Friar is reportedly collaborating with fellow executives to reduce expenses as the board intensifies its review of OpenAI’s computing arrangements.

‘This is ridiculous,’ OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Friar stated in a joint message to Verum. ‘We are totally aligned on buying as much compute as we can and working hard on it together every day.’

Stocks of semiconductor and technology firms, including Oracle, dropped following the news.

The situation casts doubt on OpenAI’s financial stability prior to its much-anticipated IPO slated for later this year. Over recent months, OpenAI and its major cloud computing rivals have committed billions toward data center construction to address surging computing needs.

Several of these agreements are directly linked to OpenAI. Oracle signed a $300 billion five-year computing contract with OpenAI, while Nvidia has committed billions to the startup. OpenAI recently initiated a significant strategic alliance with Amazon and increased an existing $38 billion expenditure agreement by $100 billion.

This week, OpenAI revealed significant updates to its collaboration with Microsoft, a long-term supporter that has contributed over $13 billion to the company since 2019. Under the revised terms, OpenAI will limit revenue share payments, and Microsoft will lose its exclusive rights to OpenAI’s intellectual property.

Read the full report from The Wall Street Journal.

Technologies

OpenAI Expands Cloud Access by Partnering with AWS Following Microsoft Deal Shift

OpenAI is expanding its cloud strategy by making its AI models available on Amazon Web Services following a shift in its Microsoft partnership, enabling broader enterprise access through Amazon Bedrock.

Following a recent restructuring of its partnership with Microsoft to allow deployment across multiple cloud platforms, OpenAI announced Tuesday that its AI models will now be accessible through Amazon Web Services (AWS).

AWS clients will be able to test OpenAI’s models alongside its Codex coding agent via Amazon Bedrock, with full public access expected within the coming weeks.

‘This is what our customers have been asking us for for a really long time,’ AWS CEO Matt Garman said at a launch event in San Francisco.

Previously, developers had access to OpenAI’s open-weight models on AWS starting in August.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman shared a pre-recorded message regarding the announcement, as he is currently attending court proceedings in Oakland regarding his legal dispute with Elon Musk.

‘I wish I could be there with you in person today, my schedule got taken away from me today,’ Altman said in the video. ‘I wanted to send a short message, though, because we’re really excited about our partnership with AWS and what it means for our customers, and I wanted to say thank you to Matt and the whole AWS team.’

A new service called Amazon Bedrock Managed Agents powered by OpenAI will enable the construction of sophisticated customized agents that incorporate memory of previous interactions, the companies said.

Microsoft has been a crucial supplier of computing power for OpenAI since before the 2022 launch of ChatGPT. Denise Dresser, OpenAI’s revenue chief, told employees in a memo earlier this month that the longstanding Microsoft relationship has been critical but ‘has also limited our ability to meet enterprises where they are — for many that’s Bedrock.’

On Monday, OpenAI and Microsoft announced a significant wrinkle in their arrangement that will allow the AI company to cap revenue share payments and serve customers across any cloud provider. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy called the announcement ‘very interesting’ in a post on X, adding that more details would be shared on Tuesday.

OpenAI and Amazon have been getting closer in other ways.

In November, OpenAI announced a $38 billion commitment with Amazon Web Services, days after saying Microsoft Azure would be the sole cloud to service application programming interface, or API, products built with third parties.

Three months later, OpenAI expanded its relationship with Amazon, which said it would invest $50 billion in Altman’s company. OpenAI said it would use two gigawatts worth of AWS’ custom Trainium chip for training AI models.

The partnership was announced after The Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI failed to meet internal goals on users and revenue. Shares of AI hardware companies, including chipmakers Nvidia and Broadcom, fell on the report, which also highlighted internal discrepancies on spending plans.

‘This is ridiculous,’ Sam Altman and OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar said in a statement about the story. ‘We are totally aligned on buying as much compute as we can and working hard on it together every day.’

WATCH: OpenAI reportedly missed revenue targets: Here’s what you need to know