Good morning and welcome to Tech News Now, TheStreet’s daily tech rundown.

In today’s edition, we’re covering Amazon’s latest troubling move with its Prime Video service, Lyft’s newest way to keep passengers safe, and Nothing teases a more affordable phone.

Amazon’s latest Prime Video outrage

Amazon  (AMZN)  is changing the model of how its Prime Video streaming service works — and the cost of doing so is making many of its users angry.

After a September 2023 announcement that Amazon would add “limited advertisements” to all of its content, asking users to pay $3 a month more to remove them, the company has another upsetting update: 

Dolby Vision HDR or Dolby Atmos surround sound, once a built-in part of a Prime Video subscription, is now being locked behind the new $3 monthly upgrade as well. There was no formal announcement from Amazon to let subscribers know about the change.

The ad-tier changes have already prompted a class-action lawsuit, filed Feb. 9 in a California federal court, which claims that Amazon misled subscribers. It seeks $5 million as well as a court order barring Amazon from engaging in further “deceptive conduct” that affects users who subscribed to Prime before Dec. 28, 2023.

Lyft’s newest feature makes rides safer

Lyft  (LYFT)  today debuts a new feature nationwide that is aimed to make both women and nonbinary riders feel safer. 

Called Women+ Connect, the often-requested feature lets users enable a setting that matches them only with female or nonbinary passengers. It was first tested in September in Chicago, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco and San Jose before the national rollout.

This new feature comes after a troubling number of reports involving women being assaulted or raped by male drivers. Data from an Uber safety report in 2020, as well as a previous report in 2018, show 9,805 reports of sexual assault from its rides between 2017 and 2020. 

The situation led one Atlanta woman to found Her-Ride, a ride-share service operated solely by women.

Nothing teases its next phone

All tech companies know how to create hype for new products, but it’s becoming something of a specialty for Nothing. Thanks to cryptic social posts, the brand gained a ton of attention for its first launch in 2020: see-through, true wireless earbuds.

Now, in what seems like a page out of Google’s Pixel or Samsung’s Galaxy lineup, the company is teasing the Nothing Phone 2A for a March 5 launch. We expect that to be the street date, as Nothing has an event set for the Mobile World Congress — Feb. 26-29 in Barcelona — that should serve as the launch event. 

Thanks to the teaser video with commentary from Founder Carl Pei and the “A” in the product name, it’s likely that this will be a more affordable, budget-friendly smartphone. 

Just like a Google Pixel 7a or Samsung Galaxy A, the Nothing Phone 2A should come in well under the cost of the Nothing Phone 2 ($549+) with a solid feature set, smooth performance and a good camera.

Unlike the Nothing Phone 2, which got a U.S. launch, the 2A will be available stateside only via a so-called Developer Program. Either way, we’ll see the latest contender in the budget smartphone market within just a few weeks. I hope it keeps a semi-transparent back with many LEDs that can glow for notifications.