Olivier Babinet of Paranoid US directed this two-minute web film which imagines a world without textiles. A place where comfortable pillows are replaced with tree stumps. Where curtains are made of sheet metal, rugs are made of sand, and sofas are made of cacti. That’s a hard world.
To celebrate a year of softness from IKEA, the fun and fluffy parts, the colorful and comfortable parts, McCann New York presented this film that shows just how hard life would be without textiles and how, with IKEA, “a little bit of softness can change your world.”
The film is the first IKEA work to come out of the agency since the Swedish retailer named McCann global agency of record for the catalog last August. It also gives a sneak peek at the type of additional content that will appear in the upcoming 2013 catalog, produced in partnership with IKEA’s in-house agency ICOM.
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