Spontaneous, a New York-based design/visual effects company, has added Amy Zale as its director of sales, and Dino Rinaldi as sales executive. Rinaldi will also lead the sales effort at partner company, creative editorial house BlueRock. Zale joins BlueRock following four years as sales associate in the New York office of production company @radical.media. Rinaldi was most recently with N.Y. post house Nice Shoes and its sister company design/visual effects house Freestyle Collective….Rep firm Hurrah! Marketing has signed design and production studio METAphrenie (which means “beyond the mind”) for representation in the U.S. and across Western Europe. With offices in Berlin and Dubai, METAphrenie, founded by creative and managing director Andrea Dionisio, is the first global client to be represented by Hurrah! Marketing, which is headed by president/head of global business development Carol Eisenrauch. Julie Sweetwood, VP, business development for Hurrah!, will serve as METAphrenie’s primary representative….Editor Cory Livingston is now being represented in Texas by editorial house charlieuniformtango. He continues to be handled in the rest of the U.S. through hybrid, the Santa Monica-based creative editorial, finishing, visual effects and motion graphics house launched earlier this year. Earlier in his career, Livingston was with Filmcore and prior to that, The Whitehouse. Charlieuniformtango gains an editor in Livingston who is experienced in the Texas market where he has worked mostly with Austin agencies GSD&M and SandersWingo…
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