LA.B Film & Content, a Los Angeles production house headed by executive producer/founder Alan Landau, has signed director Peter Refle, formerly of The Joneses, for U.S. commercial representation. His most recent work is a graceful high-speed chase in the “BMW 6 Series, MI4 Trailer” (promo tie-in to Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol) direct to client….Manhattan-based double wide media has added directors Jody Shapiro and Gary Luk, and helming duos Christopher Radcliff & Lauren Wolkstein, and Autumn Tarleton & Stacey Foster for work geared towards production for mobile and digital platforms as well as cable and network programming. Shapiro's directorial credits include Isabella Rossellini's Green Porno, a Webby-nominated series about the mating habits of insects, and the feature documentary How To Start Your Own Country, an official selection of the Toronto International Film Festival. Luk is an Internet sensation whose work includes the Asian Shower Dudes series which has been featured on Tosh 2.0, Funny or Die, Youtube and CBSNews.com online. Radcliff & Wolkstein, who are currently in development on a scripted web series, directed the narrative short The Strange Ones which was an official selection at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, and winner of numerous awards. Tarleton and Foster are producer and editor, respectively, at doublewide and have moved into the director's chair with the co-helming of The Dumpster Project, a documentary about Mac Premo's public art piece….
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