. Hesh Rephun has been named staff West Coast rep for bicoastal Headquarters. He completes what is now an in-house sales force for the company. Rephun has experience in both repping and PR for the spot production business. Earlier in his career, while based in New York, he was involved in East Coast repping for such houses as now defunct Harmony Pictures and G.M.S. Productions….Dana Locatell has joined Creative Management Partners (CMP), New York. Locatell, who was a sales rep at the now closed R/GA, will work with Mitch Kanner, former executive at Venice-based Digital Domain, on a still-to-be-determined visual effects endeavor at CMP.…Stuart Sternbach of Pangea, New York, has signed Austin, Texas-based XOPIX Productions, with director/ cameraman Richard Kooris, for East Coast representation…. Orlando Management, Los Angeles, has signed production de-signer Fred Andrews for exclusive representation in commercials and music videos….
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