Actor Michael Fassbender (Shame, Inglorious Basterds) has joined the YOUR FILM FESTIVAL team to help select the Grand Prize Winner and to co-executive produce the winner's next film. YOUR FILM FESTIVAL is a global competition to find the world's best storytellers, connect them with a global audience, and provide one deserving entrant with a career-changing opportunity. YOUR FILM FESTIVAL is a partnership between YouTube and Emirates, along with The Venice Film Festival and Scott Free. Fassbender is no stranger to Scott Free or the Venice Film Fest. His next film will be the Ridley Scott-directed Prometheus. YOUR FILM FESTIVAL will also mark Fassbender's return to the Venice Fest since winning Best Actor there for his performance in Shame, a Steve McQueen-directed film that also garnered him a Golden Globe nomination. In YOUR FILM FESTIVAL, content creators around the world are invited to submit a 15-minute, story-driven video of any format, style and genre, to Youtube.com/yourfilmfestival. After submissions are whittled down to 50 semi-finalists, YouTube users from around the world will cast their votes, choosing 10 finalists who will travel to Italy, where their work will screen at the 69th Venice International Film Festival and a Grand Prize winner will be named. Submission period is open until March 31….Advertising agency Cactus, Denver, has hired Brooke Warren as sr. broadcast producer. Previously Warren he served as sr. integrated content producer at The Integer Group, Denver….
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