Apple signs up for Google's cloud services, significantly reduces reliance on Amazon: Reports

Apple recently started using Google's cloud service even as it simultaneously builds its own data centers to reduce its reliance on third-party service providers, technology news website Re/code reported, citing sources familiar with the deal.

Apple currently also uses Amazon.com's and Microsoft's cloud services, but intends to end its reliance on all its rivals in the next few years, Recode said.

The iPhone maker is spending between $400 million and $600 million on Google's cloud services, tech magazine CRN reported, adding that it was unclear if the range was for an annual rate or a set amount of capacity.

CRN said Apple has also significantly reduced its reliance on Amazon since signing up with Google late last year.

Apple, Amazon and Alphabet-owned Google could not be reached for comment outside regular US business hours.

Apple said last February that it would spend a combined $3.9 billion to build three data centres in Arizona, Ireland and Denmark. The Arizona facility is planned to be a command centre to manage its other data centres.

Google has also been pushing to gain share in the fast-growing market. In November, the company appointed industry veteran Diane Greene to run its cloud business.

Last month, Google signed a deal to provide cloud services for online music streaming platform Spotify.

Virtual reality set to transform filmmaking

Chris Milk stepped onto a TED Conference stage and took the audience on an awe-inducing trip into the future of movies. While much of the early attention on virtual reality has focused on use of the immersive technology in video games, Milk and his US startup Vrse are using it to transform storytelling and filmgoing. "We have just started to scratch the surface of the true power of virtual reality," Milk said. "It's not a video game peripheral. It connects humans to other humans in a profound way... I think virtual reality has the potential to actually change the world." He had everyone in the Vancouver audience at TED , which ended Friday, hold Google Cardboard viewers to their eyes for what was billed as the world's collective virtual reality experience. Google Cardboard gear is literally that -- cardboard

10 Smartphones with Features that You Won't Find in Any Other Phone

Here’s a list of phones which are first-of-their-kind. From feature phones to smartphones, flat screen to curved, fragile to shatterproof, mobile phones have evolved over the years. Although many industry analysts would like to call the current level of innovation reaching a stagnation point, there still are some manufacturers which have been able to surprise consumers by truly packing something different in their smartphones. We have compiled a list of phones which offer first-of-its-kind features, and they are not merely concepts. 1. Motorola X force - Shatterproof display Display today is the most vulnerable yet the most neglected element in modern smartphones. But Motorola finally paid heed to the fragile screen with the launch of the the Motorola X Force – the world’s first smartphone with a shatterproof display. The phone uses the Moto ShatterShield display technology, which is said to be an integrated system consisting of five layers designed from material...

10 years of Twitter: Key milestones in the micro-blogging site's decade-long history

Over its 10-year history, Twitter has marked numerous world events and created its own unique moments. Here are a few key milestones in Twitter history: just setting up my twttr — Jack (@jack) March 21, 2006 March 2006: Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey (@jack) sent the first tweet, an automated message saying "just setting up my twttr." That same day, he sent the first live tweet, "inviting coworkers." Arrested — James Buck (@jamesbuck) April 10, 2008 April 2008: US university student James Buck (@jamesbuck) got off a one-word tweet "Arrested" after being taken into custody by Egyptian authorities at an anti-government protest in that country. In what is seen as an early demonstration of the power of Twitter to rally people to a cause, the resulting outcry prompted authorities to quickly restore his liberty. He proclaimed his release in a tweet reading "Free." http://twitpic.com/135xa - There's a plane in the Hudson. I'm ...

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