Edit 1, a NY-based previs boutique led by company president Michael Zimbard, has added Jessica Tabor as director of business development. Tabor joins Edit1 following three years as sales director at the visual effects/motion graphics studio Suspect….Harpoon Pictures has secured Ravelle Tomczak for West Coast representation…Management company colleen., founded by agent, coach and business development consultant Colleen Dolan Vinetz, has added music video cinematographer and photographer Joseph Labisi to its roster. In 2012, Labisi’s Drake “HYFR” video won both MTV’s Hip Hop Video of the Year and BET’s Hip Hop Video of the Year. His video for Chris Brown’s “Look At Me Now” won the same accolades the year before, including BET’s Video of the Year….Seattle-based, design-driven production company thenewBlank has hired Tom Leonard as director of business development. He will report to co-creative directors Bobby Hougham and Sevrin Daniels, and lead all new business efforts for the company as well as head the company’s new incubator space in Chicago. Leonard has over 20 years of experience in the entertainment and advertising production arena….
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