Three executives from Cliff Freeman and Partners, New York, have left the agency to form their own boutique shop. Jason Gaboriau, a former VP/associate creative director, Charles Rosen, formerly director of new business development, and strategist Doug Cameron, are opening Amalgamated, a New York agency….Eric Silver, executive VP/creative director at Cliff Freeman and Partners, has also departed the agency. His plans were not known at press time….At its grand opening last week, Technicolor Creative Services/New York unveiled some new plans. For one, the new postproduction space in West Greenwich Village will also become home to Technicolor’s New York film laboratory, which will be relocated from midtown in 2004. The new post facility includes a 40-seat digital color timing theater, as well as telecine and Discreet Fire suites. The company will also be linked to the Technicolor Global Network, which will offer connectivity to other Technicolor facilities and clients; applications include review and approvals, and real-time collaboration. Additionally, the newest hire is Fire editor Cecil Hooker, formerly of wild(child) editorial, New York….Industry mainstay Larry Chernoff, founder of Encore Hollywood and R!OT Santa Monica, and co-founder of FilmCore, Santa Monica and San Francisco, is launching Larry Chernoff & Associates Post-Production Consulting, Los Angeles. He also serves as chairman of Ascent Media Creative Services Group. Additionally, Providence, R.I.-headquartered MTI Group Holdings Inc, a supplier of digital mastering software for postproduction, has appointed Chernoff to its board of directors. MTI Group Holdings is the parent company of MTI Film and MTI Machine Vision. MTI’s software offerings are scalable tools used for film and video image correction, conversion (format and standards) and conforming….The New York Production Alliance (NYPA) has added Anne Johnson and Carl Zucker to its executive committee. Johnson, who is a former president of IATSE Local 161, will also serve as NYPA treasurer, a post that was most recently held by Jennifer Freed of Trevanne Post and Trevanna.com. Freed will continue to serve as a VP of NYPA’s executive financial committee and board of directors. Zucker is VP of marketing for payroll company Media Services, New York….Spontaneous Combustion, New York, has shifted its management team. Maribeth Phillips will assume the role of managing director/executive producer, and Sally Kapsalis will take on the position of head of sales & strategic planning. Phillips had been serving as the company’s executive producer, while Kapsalis held the position of managing director….Andrea Allen, who was formerly with 11/11 Productions, New York, has joined Sideshow, a New York-headquartered creative services company. She will serve as executive producer and head up the shop’s new live-action production team…
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More