Feature film (Laurel Canyon, High Art) and episodic TV (Push Nevada) director Lisa Cholodenko has signed with Palomar Pictures, Los Angeles, for representation in all areas, including commercials….Fearless Music, under the aegis of owner/composer Jamie Lamm, has gone bicoastal. The longstanding New York company has opened a Los Angeles office. Signed for the newly christened Fearless Music West are recording industry vets, composers/producers/musicians….Bob Kulick and Billy Sherwood….Sound designer Taso Ekonomou has joined Ultra Sound—the audio division of New York-headquartered The Napoleon Group….Editor Erin Norstrom has joined Venice, Calif.-based The Big House. She most recently cut the documentary I am Trying to Break Your Heart, featuring rock band Wilco. Previously, she edited in-house for agency Ground Zero, Marina del Rey, Calif…. U.K.-headquartered Cintel International, known for such fare as its C-Reality telecine line, has purchased key assets and intellectual property rights of another U.K.-based telecine manufacturer, Innovation TK (ITK). Stuart Hunt, who’s been responsible for much of the technology to come out of ITK in recent years, joins Cintel as technical director. He will work closely with Cintel’s R&D team and plans to ensure the continuity and support of ITK’s Millennium and Millennium Lite telecines, as well as its Y-Front, Twigi and Scan’dal machines….Michael Cook, formerly co-owner of The Film Business, Sydney, has been named CEO/exec producer of Filmgraphics, the Sydney house launched in 1964 by director David Denneen. As a spot helmer, Denneen is repped stateside by bicoastal Anonymous Content….Director/cinematographer Carolyn Chen—whose spot roost is bicoastal/international Believe Media, received the Kodak Vision Award during last week’s Women In Film Crystal & Lucy Awards 2002 in Los Angeles. The Vision Award recognizes outstanding achievement in cinematography and directing as well as Chen’s collaboration with and assistance to women in the entertainment industry……Director Marcus Nispel is again available for spots at bicoastal/international Morton Jankel Zander after principal photography was wrapped on his feature directorial debut, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. New Line Cinema is slated to release the film on Oct. 31……
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