This is how much it costs to make one episode of Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones might be HBO's pride and joy but many fans will be oblivious to just how much money goes into making the hit fantasy series.

The budget for the upcoming sixth season has been revealed by Entertainment Weekly as "north of $10 million per episode", meaning over $100 million (£69m) has been spent on production. Previous reports had suggested that series two cost $6 million to make, which was startling enough in itself, but clearly the network are more than happy to fork out millions more to take Game of Thrones to new levels of epic
Co-showrunner David Benioff said in 2012 that he had been "pleading" with HBO for more money after "making a case" for why more cash should be splashed on impressive battle scenes like The Battle of the Blackwater and The Battle of Hardhome.
Game of Thrones returns to Sky Atlantic in the UK at 2am on Monday 25 April to coincide with its premiere in the US. Fans not keen on staying up that late can watch it at 9pm the same day. No pressure HBO, but fans are going to be expecting some gigantic dragons and seriously awesome action sequences for that kind of dollar.

Snapchat gets cool new features

Is Snapchat your primary means of playing catch-up with your friends? If so, it's about to get a whole lot easier, thanks to the ephemeral photo-sharing app's revamped chat system.

Snapchat's Chat 2.0 update -- available now forAndroid andiPhone -- adds multiple ways to reach out to your buddies beyond the app's usual "see-it-before-it-disappears" snapshots.

One such addition is a collection of in-chat stickers, which takes a note from Facebook Messenger and Line and lets you send tiny images that best express your mood, from tiny pizza slices to a food-obsessed cartoon sloth.

Should you prefer a more personal means of communicating, the face-to-face video chat system on Snapchat has been retooled to work with the single push of a button -- no more waiting for your friend to be in the same chat to start pestering them!

Voice chat has been added to make the app an internet-enabled replacement for phone service. Should a recipient somehow be too busy for Snapchat, users can leave ten-second Video Notes or voicemails that can be checked later.

These features come as a pleasant not-so-surprise, as the additions were leaked two months back, spoiling the stickers and video memo features before Snapchat could officially announce them.

While not part of the new Chat interface, Snapchat's update also includes an auto-advance feature for Stories - meaning you can browse through your friends' updates in a single sitting, eliminating the tedium of catching up on everyone's antics one-by-one.

In essence, Chat 2.0 is Snapchat's attempt to carve out a larger niche - concentrating on more than just blink-and-you'll-miss-it pictures, but taking on the likes of chat giants like WhatsApp, Line, and Facebook Messenger on their own turf.

Honestly, we were already sold by the sloth stickers, but we guess the ability to call and leave messages for your close ones is a plus, too.