Director Daniel Levi has signed with bicoastal Smuggler for U.S. representation. Levi, who was featured in the Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors Showcase at the 2002 Cannes International Advertising Festival, is repped in the U.K. by Independent, London, and in South Africa by Gatehouse Films, Johannesburg….Director Gordon Clark, formerly with Tate & Partners, Santa Monica, has come aboard bicoastal Tool of North America….Director Jeremiah Chechik has entered into an exclusive spot helming relationship with Hollywood-based production/creative services company Level 7….Music/sound design house Ear to Ear and its sister audio post shop AudioBanks, both in Santa Monica, have formed a collaborative alliance with digital media company AIX Media Group, Los Angeles….After spending the past six years in the San Francisco agency market, Matt Mowatt has rejoined GSD&M, Austin, Texas, as creative director on the PGATour, Dial and Charles Schwab accounts….Janie Balcomb has joined producer Mark O’Sullivan as joint managing director of Believe UK. Balcomb, whose track record includes serving in spot production sales for U.K. shops Spectre and Outsider, now teams with O’Sullivan to run the London arm of bicoastal U.S. boutique Believe Media. Balcomb and O’Sullivan report to Believe Media’s stateside co-founders, president Luke Thornton and VP Liz Silver….
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