Chicago-based independent firm Liz Laine Reps has taken on the Midwest and Texas for Los Angeles-based motion graphics/animation house Nylon Motion….Mendy Frohlich has joined the sales team at Fluid, a New York-based original music/sound design/creative editorial studio. She will work directly with Fluid partners David Shapiro and Marc Schwartz, and sales rep Jessica Millington. Frohlich comes over to Fluid from New York independent rep firm Schafler Artists Management…. National Television, a Hollywood-based collective of designers, animators and illustrators, has secured Hot Betty, Inc., an independent rep firm in Chicago headed by Catherine De Angelis and Lily Stefanski, to handle representation in the Midwest. National has also signed Michael Waxman of Venice, Calif.-based MBW Represents to cover the West Coast and Texas…. Jazelle Azami has joined Partos Company, Santa Monica, as a commercial rep….Cinematographer Tobias Schliessler has completed principal photography on Bill Condon’s Dreamgirls and is again available for spots through The Skouras Agency, Santa Monica….Production designer Jeremy Reed is now available through Innovative Artists, Santa Monica, after wrapping duties on the feature Factory Girl for director George Hickenlooper….
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