Bicoastal production house Rabbit, which finished 9th in the 2011 Cannes Palme d’Or derby, has secured Lisa Houck of indepedent rep firm Salon, LA, to handle the West Coast….Santa Monica-based visual effects/post/graphic design house Planet Blue has tabbed Char Noonan and his indie rep firm Char & Associates to handle sales worldwide….Chris Miller has joined Harpoon Pictures as director of new business development. Miller previously ran sales and marketing for commercial production companies Highway 61 and Bridge Street Films….TidalTV, a video advertising, optimization and yield management solutions provider, has made three new hires in its New York office. Christa Rimonneau joins TidalTV as senior sales director, East Coast, reporting to VP of advertising sales Brian Danzis. Rimonneau previously worked as sales director at Adconion Media Group, and has held sales positions at Dailymotion and CNN.com. Caren Wachtenheim has been named sales account executive at TidalTV where she is responsible for network sales. Prior to TidalTV, she worked as a senior account executive at totallyher, a division of Gorilla Nation & Evolve Media. She has also held positions at First30Days, Inc. and FOX Interactive Media. And Brett Tabano comes to TidalTV as director of sales strategy. He will be responsible for analysis of key business issues impacting the online video industry. Prior to TidalTV, Tabano held account management positions at Demand Media, Priceline and Tribal DDB….
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