JANUARY 21, 2000 JANUARY 20, 1995
Bicoastal commercial production house RSA USA has finalized an agreement with executive producer Susanne Preissler for the formal launch of RSA Independent. The new venture specializes in garnering spots for select feature filmmakers….Jump, New York, has added editor Julie Drazen to its roster….After recently ending a 20-year tenure at Chicago-based music/sound design house Com/track, composer/producer Gary Fry has joined commercial music shop Catfish Music, Chicago….Editor Hannah Neufeld has joined Wildchild Editorial, New York. Neufeld comes over after five years at New York-based Homestead Editorial….Miles Goodall, a director/DP currently based in Cape Town, has signed with New York-based Taxi Films….Magick Lantern, Atlanta, has added Amy Henderson as operations manager/postproduction producer….
Director/cameraman Kinka Usher, formerly with Stiefel & Co., Hollywood, has joined bicoastal Smillie Films, finalizing a deal that had been rumored for several months….Mike Cunningham, president of Western Images, San Francisco, will return to the International Teleproduction Society (ITS) board after suddenly resigning his position as president in late December. At press time, he had not yet decided if he will return as president or as a member….Editor T.G. Herrington has departed the two-and-a-half-year-old NaHo Editorial, Santa Monica, to launch MOJO/L.A., Santa Monica. Herrington was a partner in and the sole editor at NaHo….Santiago, New York, has signed tabletop director Beth Galton, who is also a noted print photographer, for exclusive representation. Galton comes from Five Union Square Productions, New York, where she began directing two years ago….
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