Former Über Content co-owner/executive producer Preston Lee has launched Culver City-based production company Sanctuary. Lee enjoyed a 10-year run at Über Content which he co-ran with partner Phyllis Koenig. He serves as EP/owner of Sanctuary which opens with a roster that includes former Über Content directors Fred Savage, Cole Webley, Lucia Aniello, and Scott Pickett. Also part of the Sanctuary directorial lineup are MTV alum and Girl Code director Laura Murphy, and Canadian filmmaker Natalie Rae Robison. Lee plans to eventually open a NY office to make Sanctuary bicoastal. The company is represented by Pamala Buzick and Kamila Prokop of Maven Label on the East Coast, Katy Richter and Heather Guillen of The Standard Society in the Midwest and will announce West Coast representation shortly….
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