• Netflix has released the first five minutes of The Night Agent season 2
• They show Peter Sutherland running for his life when a mission goes wrong
• The hugely popular spy thriller returns on our screens on January 23

The Night Agent season 2 is almost here – and, to celebrate its forthcoming launch, Netflix has released its first five minutes early.

Two years after the spy thriller series became the latest TV Original to enjoy smash hit status on Netflix, its second season is due to make its debut on the streaming giant this Thursday (January 23). Understandably, excitement is growing ahead of The Night Agent‘s return, and in a bid to tap into that growing fan fervor, Netflix has dropped an extended look at the season 2 premiere’s opening sequence.

In the video, the trigger is pressed down a tad before a final push releases it from the console. As the Joy-Con moves away, you can also see a small cylinder receding back into the top part of the inside of the controller; to me, that indicates that when you push the trigger, you’re actually pushing out that cylinder to help bump the Joy-Con out.

Here’s a GIF of the relevant part of the video:

The mechanism to remove the Joy-Con controllers looks similar to what was included in a 3D-printed mockup that accessories-maker Genki brought to CES.

Popular caller ID app Truecaller has long left iPhone users at a disadvantage by not offering the caller information in real-time — a feature its Android users have enjoyed for some time. Today, that changes as the company is rolling out an update that brings real-time caller ID support to its iOS subscribers.

The company was able to implement the feature because Apple introduced Live Caller ID Lookup in iOS 18, allowing third-party caller ID apps to securely make a call to their server to get information about the caller. Notably, this is also the first major release from the Swedish company after the co-founders Alan Mamedi and Nami Zarringhalam stepped down from the day-to-day operations in November 2024.

Today, Truecaller has more than 2.6 million paying subscribers, of which only around 750,000 of them are on iOS. However, 40% of Truecaller’s revenue is from iOS subscriptions. The company also gets a 5X conversation rate to its premium tier on iOS compared to Android as well as 80% higher revenue from an iPhone subscriber.

Considering the importance of the iPhone to Truecaller’s bottom line, the company continues to develop its iOS app.

In 2022, Truecaller relaunched the iOS app to focus on better spam detection, thanks to Apple allowing the app to store a larger set of numbers locally.

“It did improve the overall call identification. But that wasn’t enough because in countries like India, there is a huge calling activity, and not all this would be available in the offline database,” Truecaller Product Director Nakul Kabra told TechCrunch in an interview.

India presents other challenges for the company, as well, including the arrival of a service, Calling Name Presentation (commonly called CNAP, designed to curb spam. The service, currently being rolled out by local telcos, could eventually emerge as a competitor to Truecaller.

Truecaller also updated its iOS app in 2023 with a live caller ID experience, but that involved a step requiring interaction with Siri and also wasn’t real-time.

Until iOS 18’s release, Truecaller had to rely on a locally saved dictionary of limited phone numbers on iOS.

To enable the new feature, Truecaller built a new server architecture and created a separate, encrypted database for iOS, alongside its existing larger database for Android users. Apple’s Phone app makes encrypted requests to this database and gets encrypted responses that are only decrypted on the client (iPhone) to show the caller ID in real time. This process is called “homomorphic encryption,” as the computations use encrypted data instead of decrypting them first, while decryption happens on the client to display caller information if it matches with the data stored on the server.

Kabra told TechCrunch that Truecaller had built a way to sync two databases to keep the data synced between them.

“At the moment, there might be a bit of a delay because these requests get queued up, and the encryption that we do is very time-consuming — and very expensive… But it should not be more than a few hours,” he said.

TechCrunch tested live caller ID under Truecaller’s beta program last week and noticed that the feature does provide caller information in real-time in most cases, though it sometimes misses.

Truecaller’s premium tier on iOS starts at $9.99 a month, per individual, or $74.99/year. The company also offers its family plan on iOS starting at $14.99/month or $99.99/year and the top-end Gold subscription at $249 a year.

Users can enable the Live Caller ID Lookup feature through iPhone Settings > Apps > Phone > Call Blocking & Identification.

On iOS 18, Truecaller also updated its interface with the caller’s name appearing in bold over their number. Now, Truecaller is working on support for images to show up in the caller ID for its iOS users.

• G.Skill Trident Z5 DDR5 was overclocked to 6027MHz or 12,054MT/s
• That was achieved using just air cooling, with no need for liquid nitrogen
• There is, however, a catch (of sorts) in how the CPU was configured

G.Skill has again been setting records with its DDR5 RAM, this time with a seriously impressive overclock that doesn’t use any exotic cooling.

This feat was achieved using G.Skill Trident Z5 DDR5 by an expert overclocker from Indonesia, a certain ‘speed.fastest,’ who managed to crank the RAM up to 6027MHz (or 12,054MT/s).

Netflix is raising prices yet again. In its latest earnings report released Tuesday, the streaming service announced that “we are adjusting prices today across most plans” in the US, Canada, Portugal, and Argentina.

Netflix spokesperson MoMo Zhou tells The Verge that the ad-supported tier is increasing from $6.99 to $7.99 per month, while the standard ad-free tier will go from $15.49 to $17.99 per month. Its highest-priced premium tier is also increasing from $22.99 to $24.99 per month. The price hikes will go into effect during subscribers’ next billing cycle, according to Zhou.

“As we continue to invest in programming and deliver more value for our members, we will occasionally ask our members to pay a little more so that we can re-invest to further improve Netflix,” the company’s letter to investors says. Netflix last raised the price of its subscription in October 2023. This is also the first time it’s raising the price of this ad-supported plan, which it rolled out in 2022.

Netflix added 19 million new subscribers over the past few months — the most in its history during a single quarter — bringing its global total to 300 million. This is the last time Netflix will reveal how many subscribers it added during the quarter, as the company said last year that it would only announce “major subscriber milestones as we cross them” starting in the first quarter of 2025.

Even with a subscriber count reaching new highs, and operating income ballooning past $10 billion for the first time, Netflix executives believe the company still has room for growth. The company’s letter to investors says it accounts for less than 10 percent of TV viewing in the countries it’s available in, “which suggests a long runway for growth as streaming continues to expand around the world.”

Along with the price hike, Netflix announced that it’s rolling out a new Extra Member with Ads plan, which will allow those on the ad-supported plan to add someone outside their household to their subscription. It currently costs an extra $7.99 per month to add someone outside your household to an ad-free plan.

Update, January 21st: Added information from Netflix.

President Donald Trump is trying to halt the flow of funding for EV charging infrastructure from two programs that have benefited Tesla — the latest example of how Elon Musk’s political interests seem to be at odds with his car company’s goal of advancing sustainable energy.

It’s not a given that Trump’s gambit will succeed. But if it does, Tesla could be cut off from two sources of funding that the automaker has tapped the past two years to build out its market-leading EV charging network.

In one of the myriad executive orders Trump signed on the first day of his second term, he declared that “[a]ll agencies shall immediately pause the disbursement of funds” from programs created by the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. He specifically calls out stopping funding for EV charging stations that’s been made available through the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program and the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure (CFI) grant program.

Those agencies are supposed to submit a review of “processes, policies, and programs for issuing grants, loans, contracts, or any other financial disbursements” within 90 days of the date of this order, and all agency heads shall submit a report to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the National Economic Council (NEC). The order also states that agencies cannot disburse more funds unless the “Director of OMB and Assistant to the President for Economic Policy have determined that such disbursements are consistent with any review recommendations they have chosen to adopt.”

Musk has long claimed that Tesla’s mission is “accelerating the transition to sustainable energy.” But he is now officially working with the second Trump administration, which took big swings at sustainable energy on its first day. Trump has already signed orders halting federal leases for offshore wind development, pulled the United States out of the Paris climate agreement, and is trying to reverse other Biden administration EV policies.

Tesla was recently part of a group that won a $100 million award from the CFI program to build out charging infrastructure for heavy-duty electric trucks across Illinois, as TechCrunch first reported last week. The company was hoping to secure around $40 million from the group’s original funding request of $126 million. Tesla has also repeatedly sought around $100 million in CFI funding to build a truck-charging corridor between Northern California and southern Texas, but that application has been passed over multiple times.

Tesla’s CFI award in Illinois is a small portion of the nearly $2 billion the Department of Transportation has allocated over the last two years. Tesla has won a much greater share of grants from the NEVI program — which doles out smaller amounts of money to states, which, in turn, use those funds to offer grants to build charging infrastructure. Tesla had won around 13% of all NEVI awards by the middle of 2024 and was using those millions to further build out its Supercharger network, which is now open to almost all competing EVs.

Trump could slow or stop the flow of future spending from these programs, according to Martin Lockman, a fellow at Columbia Law School’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. He might especially be able to do so if his administration is successful in its promised legal fight over the Impoundment Control Act, which limits the president’s ability to stop Congress from spending money that’s been appropriated.

“There’s a lot of wiggle room here, and the Trump administration will certainly do everything that it can to delay spending under these bills,” Lockman said.

It is not clear that Trump can legally stop the funding of awards that are already under contract, though.

“People who have contracts today have rights under those contracts, and the President can’t take them away,” he said.

But, Lockman cautioned, if agencies feel enough pressure from Trump, they could violate the terms of those contracts — and potentially the laws that established the funding programs in the first place — and refuse to give out the money. In that situation, the companies, state and local agencies, or other entities that won awards from NEVI or CFI would have to fight to get them fulfilled.

“If the new administration wants to make people fight for their contracts in court, that would certainly be a huge barrier to building EV infrastructure,” he said.

Microsoft is basically the biggest name in the business world, whether we’re talking about Microsoft Office apps or Windows running on our computers. One thing they have nailed down is recognizing that their products are well-loved for their simple and familiar interface, but still offering regular updates.

Windows 11 Pro was specifically designed for business professionals. You’ll find new tools for productivity and balancing hybrid or remote work with life. With this deal, you can upgrade three devices to Windows 11 Pro — rated 4.5/5 stars by verified purchasers — for just $19.97 at TechRepublic Academy.

New look, new features

The first thing you’ll notice is a redesigned user interface. Rounded app corners, a centered bottom taskbar, snap layouts and widgets all give your computer a refreshed, yet familiar, appearance while offering the latest tools.

Then, there’s layers of security features like Microsoft Information Protection that protects your personal data from leaks and BitLocker device encryption that encrypts your hard drive with a key. Both of these are excellent for shielding your personal and work information from harm.

Designed for the workforce

If you’re a remote or hybrid worker, or a business owner or manager with employees around the globe, you’ll appreciate things like:

• Windows Information Protection allows you to separate work and personal data on the same device.
• Remote desktop access is included from anywhere. Connect to your Windows 11 Pro computer from another computer, a tablet or a smartphone.
• Group Policy Management tools allow enforcement of policies and compliance. Administrators can create settings or access for different devices, users and groups.

Upgrade your operating system to Windows 11 Pro on three devices for only $19.97 (reg. $199), now at TechRepublic Academy, so be sure to take advantage of it before it’s gone.

Prices and availability are subject to change.

Good morning! Let’s play Connections, the NYT’s clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need clues.

What should you do once you’ve finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I’ve also got daily Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too, while Marc’s Wordle today page covers the original viral word game.

Meta may be releasing new Oakley-branded smart glasses later this year, according to a new Bloomberg report.

The Oakley-branded glasses, internally referred to as “Supernova 2”, would be based on the brand’s Sphaera glasses. Instead of housing the cameras on the side, the Supernova 2 would shift the camera to the center of the frame. The idea is to appeal to cyclists and other outdoor athletes. The report didn’t detail any other potential features, though the Oakley glasses would ostensibly have similar features to the current Ray-Ban Meta glasses.

Oakley, like Ray-Bans, are a subsidiary of eyewear giant EssilorLuxottica. The move to expand Meta’s tech to other brands under EssilorLuxottica’s umbrella is a savvy one. While the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses are good for discreet, everyday wear, they’re a bit heavy for endurance sports and lack certain features like polarized lenses for better visibility. Oakleys are also considered stylish and popular among professional athletes. Conceptually, they’re similar to the now discontinued Bose Frames Tempo, which allowed athletes to have open-ear audio with polarized lenses in a relatively light form factor. That said, if the goal is to appeal to athletes, Meta and Oakley will likely have to address factors like weight, sweat resistance, and battery life.

The report also notes that Meta plans on launching a higher-end version of its current Ray-Ban glasses that include a display capable of delivering notifications, running simple apps, and previewing photos.

On Monday, while tech billionaires like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg sat onstage for President Donald Trump’s inauguration, dozens of founders were at parties all across Washington, D.C., trying to get an audience with the new president’s inner circle. 

To hear them tell it, it wasn’t all that hard. Valar Atomics founder Isaiah Taylor spent the weekend party hopping, rubbing shoulders with Sean Spicer or conservative podcaster Jordan Peterson. Taylor’s company wants to use nuclear power to generate synthetic hydrocarbon fuel. He even scored three separate invites to Mar-a-Lago in the last month by sending a two-page document on changes he’d like to see to nuclear regulations to anyone he knew with Washington connections. “People are like, ‘please tell me, how do we fix this? We need to build things again,’” he said of the administration. 

His story was surprisingly common. All throughout America’s capital, founders enjoyed the fruits of their industry’s political jockeying. They watched Snoop Dogg at David Sacks’ Crypto Ball, attended a wee-hours crypto rave sponsored by the Milady NFT group, and dressed up for a “Coronation Ball” hosted by a publishing company associated with Curtis Yarvin, the controversial thought leader cited by both Marc Andreessen and Peter Thiel. 

Tyler Sweatt, CEO of defense tech startup Second Front Systems, said a huge frustration he’s had with the federal government has been bureaucratic opacity. Founders often can’t even figure out who to contact in the government, much less secure a huge contract. 

But Sweatt left events like the vice presidential dinner and Trump’s pre-inauguration candlelight dinner feeling like the country might be entering a rare moment when the federal government, Big Tech, and the startup ecosystem are aligned — and where the shroud surrounding the government’s inner workings might be lifted. “Apolitically, that’s pretty freaking interesting for what could we do as a country,” he said. 

At a watch party hosted by conservative organization American Moment, the congressional staffers wore suits with red ties and tech workers wore sneakers. Jacob Martin, general partner of crypto fund 2 Punks Capital and co-founder of gaming guild Ready Player DAO, kept watching for news that Trump had immediately pardoned Silk Road’s infamous founder Ross Ulbricht, currently serving life in prison. He did not, despite having promised to do so at a Libertarian convention in May.

Martin also lamented missing his chance to buy the Trump meme coin when it launched at Sacks’ Crypto Ball, a time when top crypto donors were away from their computers. Trading on the coin soon soared. “I could have bought. But I didn’t, because it was clearly a scam, right?” Martin laughed. “There were people who made hundreds of millions on it.”  

He hopes the Trump administration can make it so “people are able to utilize blockchain technology to make better things, launch tokens when necessary, and not have to worry about jail time.” 

DOGE as their big chance

Several founders felt Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency will open the floodgates for startups to pitch the government on their products in order to fulfill its promise of making the government more efficient. James Layfield, chief sales officer of Samplify.ai, which helps companies identify redundant software, created a website called “DogeProof.com.” The concept, he said, is to offer up Samplify.ai’s products to government agencies for free so they can rid themselves of extraneous subscriptions before Musk comes along to slash their costs. 

Layfield pitched it to Florida representative Byron Donalds at an inauguration ball and said he seemed intrigued. “The whole experience has been incredibly rewarding to just see how open people are to this possibility,” Layfield said. 

Meanwhile, Rabi Alam, founder of Counter Health, hopes that DOGE might support his company’s mission to streamline the healthcare system while keeping the quality of care high. First, though, like everyone in the country, he’s got to figure out what exactly DOGE is. Luckily, Alam scored an invite to the Inauguration Ball, where he intended to scout some DOGE employees. “I’d like to get some of what I’ll call finer granularity and more color on what the approach is,” he said. 

If this weekend shows anything, it’s that the hardest challenge founders will face, between balls and Mar-a-Lago trips, might just be staying focused on their day job. “There’s people who are trying to be in the right room,” Taylor said. “And there are people trying to get the work done.”