Liz Laine Reps will represent boutique transmedia production company Global Mechanic Media exclusively in the Midwest and on the West Coast for all commercial and digital work…Grace & Wild Studios in Farmington Hills, Mass., has hired account executive Jacquelyn Pierce. Pierce will be exploring new business opportunities and maintaining existing accounts for the company’s production services offerings. Pierce has spent the past four years as a marketing and communications consultant for Fieger Law in Southfield, Michigan. In her position there, she developed and implemented a social media strategy, created a new and traditional public relations and advertising campaign, and created image branding materials, such as press releases, a newsletter, website, photo exhibit to promote the law firm and nationally renowned lawyer Geoffrey Fieger. Prior to that, she served more than eight years as an independent executive producer, writer and talent for various broadcast and online projects, and spent eight years as VP of advertising and marketing at Sussman Sikes & Associates in Southfield, Mich….
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