Facebook and others invest in 6,214-mile Asia-Pacific undersea internet cable, friend request lag to plummet

Undersea cableIt’s almost become a truism that internet connections from the Asia-Pacific region to the rest of the world can be slow and lag-ridden, but that assumption is about to be knocked flat if Facebook and others in a Time Dotcom-led consortium have their way. The alliance is investing a combined $450 million into the Asia Pacific Gateway, a 6,214-mile undersea cable that will run between Japan, Malaysia and South Korea. The fiber optic pipe will not only help reduce the need to route large volumes of traffic through Singapore but, in many cases, send much of that traffic straight to American shores — a big help when Facebook and much of the web industry still hosts most of its content on the Eastern side of the ocean. Although faster speeds won’t be in place until the summer of 2014, by which point the more direct connections might be absolutely necessary, it still gives hope to those of us who want to poke friends and upload photos in record time.

Facebook and others invest in 6,214-mile Asia-Pacific undersea internet cable, friend request lag to plummet originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Jul 2012 21:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple opens iTunes Store in Hong Kong, Taiwan and 10 other Asia-Pacific territories

Apple opens iTunes Store in Hong Kong, Taiwan and 10 other AsiaPacific countries

Many Apple fans on the opposite side of the Pacific from Cupertino haven’t had much of a choice to shop from iTunes, even though they’ve had the App Store for some time. There’s now a much better sense of balance: Apple just flicked the switch on the iTunes Store for music and movies in a dozen countries and territories across the Asia-Pacific region. The company singles out our own Richard Lai’s Hong Kong as well as Singapore and Taiwan, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam are also getting the media catalogs, which include local content along with the international hits. It’s a full catch-up as well, with iTunes in the Cloud re-downloads and iTunes Match subscriptions available in every new country. If you’re a huge Andy Lau fan but wanted his albums from the most iPhone-friendly store possible, the wait is over.

Apple opens iTunes Store in Hong Kong, Taiwan and 10 other Asia-Pacific territories originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Jun 2012 19:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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