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ExtraBITS for 4 August 2014

Apple has launched its content delivery network with the participation of leading ISPs, which should lead to faster streaming and downloads for users. Also, Apple’s “Stickers” ad has lead to a surprising boon for makers of MacBook stickers and decals.

Apple’s “Stickers” Ad a Boon for Decal Makers — Apple’s “Stickers” ad was surprising because it actually encouraged owners to customize the sleek aluminum MacBook Air. According to a piece in MacStories, the ad also led to a happy, if unintended side effect: sales of MacBook stickers and decals are soaring. Benjamin Clark of The Decal Guru said they saw a quadrupling of orders after the ad, and Etsy sellers also reported similar gains.

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Apple’s CDN Is Live — Apple has completed the CDN, or content delivery network, it began building last year. A CDN distributes content among multiple servers and data centers in order to spread out the load and better serve demand. Dan Rayburn of StreamingMediaBlog.com has spoken to ISPs and discovered that Apple’s CDN is capable of handling ten times the capacity the company currently uses, which will come in handy for the releases of iOS 8 and OS X 10.10 Yosemite, plus upcoming features like iCloud Drive, iCloud Photo Library, and any possible expansions to its streaming media services.
To ensure smooth traffic flow, Apple has secured interconnect deals with ISPs like Comcast — which may explain in part why Apple has been so quiet regarding net neutrality.

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