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Snap and Google will be partnered for the next five years, according to Snap’s S-1 filing released last week. Completed on January 30, the deal commits Snap to purchasing $400 million in Google's cloud services annually until 2022, totaling $2 billion over the period. The new lease is a formal continuation of a partnership that began around 2013,  TechCrunch notes .  The deal is a big win for Google Cloud, as mobile video is poised to make up a larger portion of the data storage space. Snapchat users are highly engaged, with the average daily user turning to the app 18 times each day, according to Snap's S-1. And although Google doesn’t break out revenue from its cloud business, instead lumping it together with nonadvertising, which includes the Google Play store, the $400 million deal will give it a hefty annual bump. In Q4 2016, nonadvertising accrued $3.4 billion in sales. Mobile video already accounts for more than half of all mobile traffic. In 2015, mobile video acco

Prairieland immigration facility reserves 36 beds for transgender inmates who are more likely to face abuse, but advocates worry about isolation and quality of care  Inside the Prairieland detention center’s transgender unit in Alvarado, Texas. Photograph: Charles Reed/US Immigration and Customs Enforcement View more sharing options Tom Dart During the week of the inauguration of a president whose policies will lead to a sharp increase in migrant arrests, America’s newest immigrant detention centre opened in rural north  Texas . Known as Prairieland, it has an unusual feature designed to protect an especially vulnerable section of the population: a unit for transgender detainees. Some LGBT advocates, though, question whether holding transgender people in a detached pod in a remote location will do more harm than good. The privately run centre 40 miles from Dallas stands as a monument to the Obama administration’s commitment to migrant detention, a practice it reinforced from 201

New England Patriots' quarterback Tom Brady is reflected multiple times in the Vince Lombardi trophy as he celebrates after his team defeated the Atlanta Falcons to win Super Bowl LI in Houston, Texas, U.S., February 5, 2017. Feb 5, 2017; Houston, TX, USA; New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (12) celebrates with the Vince Lombardi Trophy after winning Super Bowl LI against the Atlanta Falcons at NRG Stadium. Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports Tom Brady and the New England Patriots engineered the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history to claim a breathtaking 34-28 overtime victory over the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday, cementing their status as true a NFL dynasty. With the victory, Brady becomes the first quarterback to win five Super Bowl championships and, at 39, the second oldest at his position to win the NFL's biggest prize. And while Brady claims each one is special, Sunday's may be the sweetest as it was his first since serving a four-game ban this season hande

Oh boy. Critics, developers, and customers who oppose Windows 10 and Microsoft’s Universal Windows Platform initiative are likely now gathering their pitchforks and torches, as a recent leak seemingly confirms that Windows 10 Cloud does indeed exist. Even more, the unannounced operating system is  locked to the Windows Store , preventing users from installing traditional (Win32) desktop programs. An early version of Windows 10 Cloud is now available as an ISO file via  Twitter user @adguard . Those wanting to see what the fuss is all about should  not  install this platform on a machine, but create a bootable USB drive or run the ISO file through a virtual machine. The downloadable file resides on a cloud server located in Russia. More:   Epic’s Tim Sweeney isn’t thrilled about the locked nature of Windows 10 Cloud The idea behind Windows 10 Cloud is to provide a lightweight, optimized version of Windows 10 for notebooks to compete directly with Google’s Chrome OS platform installe

An alliance of U.S.-backed militias started a new phase of its campaign against the Islamic State-held city of Raqqa on Saturday, aiming to complete its encirclement and sever the road to militant strongholds in Deir al-Zor province. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said in a statement the action was being undertaken with "increasing support from the (U.S.-led) international coalition forces" through both air strikes and backing from coalition special forces on the ground. The SDF, which includes the powerful Kurdish YPG militia, launched its multi-phased campaign in November aimed at encircling and ultimately capturing Raqqa. It is the main U.S. partner in the fight against Islamic State in Syria. Islamic State is also being fought in a separate campaign by the Turkish army and Syrian rebel groups northeast of Aleppo, and on several fronts across Syria by the Syrian government backed by the Russian air force and Iranian-backed militia. Jordan, part of the U.S.-led coal

A year after Amazon’s Echo starred in a Super Bowl commercial, Google Home gets its turn in the spotlight with a 60-second ad that will air Sunday during this year’s Super Bowl. It’s not Google’s first Super Bowl ad; that happened all the way back in 2010 when Google ran the well-received  Parisian Love ad . But it is the first Super Bowl ad for Google Home, the company’s in-home voice assistant that’s only been  available to consumers since October . You’ll recognize the commercial as very “Googley” — it has a very personal and homey feel and portrays a cross-section of people using the device in various times of need. The ad ends with the tagline, “Home by you. Help by Google.” There’s no pricing information or even anything that tells consumers where to buy Home Google is battling Amazon — and to a lesser degree right now, Apple (Siri) and Microsoft (Cortana) — for the expanding voice assistant market. One  recent estimate  suggests there’ll be more than 30 million voice-based de

Users of WeChat sent around 46 billion electronic red packets - digital versions of traditional envelopes stuffed with cash - via the Chinese mobile social platform over the Lunar New Year period, the official Xinhua new agency reported on Saturday. China has a long tradition of giving red packets during the Lunar New Year, which fell on Jan. 28 this year. Internet giants such as Alibaba Group Holding have promoted the use of virtual red packets, also known as "hongbaos", to grow business in the country's booming mobile payment market. The number of digital red packets sent via WeChat, owned by Alibaba rival Tencent Holdings Ltd, rose 43 percent in the Jan. 27 and Feb. 1 period compared with a year earlier, according to Xinhua. People in the provinces of Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shandong and Hebei led the red packets mania, while South Koreans were WeChat's most active hongbao senders outside the Chinese mainland, Xinhua said. Since its launch in 2011, WeChat has beco

Oil prices edged higher on Friday in response to the possibility of new sanctions on Iran after U.S. President Donald Trump said "nothing is off the table" in response to its test launch of a missile. Comments by Russian energy minister Alexander Novak that oil producers had cut their output as agreed under a deal with OPEC also helped to support prices, analysts said. Brent crude futures were up 15 cents to $56.71 a barrel by 1322 GMT, after settling 24 cents lower at $56.56 in the previous session. Brent was on track to gain more than 2 percent on the week, its first significant weekly rise this year. Front month U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures climbed 15 cents to $53.69 a barrel, after ending 34 cents down on Thursday. For the week, the contract is up just under 1 percent. Reuters reported on Thursday that the Trump administration is prepared to roll out new measures against more than two dozen Iranian targets following Tehran's ballistic missile test, a