Director Bob Morrow has joined Los Angeles production house A Common Thread, where he recently completed a package of branded web shorts featuring Iron Chef Cat Cora for Palmolive. Morrow previously was a creative director at Kansas City, Mo.-based retail branding agency Bernstein-Rein….Mike Shackle has joined Deutsch New York as sr. VP/group creative director on the Microsoft account. Deutsch was awarded the global Cloud Computing business in August 2010, and in May was handed the Microsoft Office 365 business, doubling its portfolio of Microsoft business. Most recently, Shackle was executive creative director at BBH New York, where he led creative for the global Vaseline and Ally Bank accounts. Prior to BBH, he worked as exec creative director at Y&R/Enfatico in Beijing on the Land Rover account, for which he helped win the agency its first Cannes Lion….John Tissavary has joined Southfield, Mich.-based Postique where he will be supervising the DI department as well as serving as a consultant on digital intermediate projects for Grace & Wild Studios. Postique is a division of Grace & Wild, Inc. Tissavary brings more than 25 years experience in the filmmaking and commercial world to Postique. Throughout his career, he has served as producer, director, colorist and visual effects artist for a wide variety of projects ranging from feature films (The Matrix, Ocean's 11, Scorpion King, Stealth) to commercial and music video projects of every conceivable size and budget. He is an expert in digital intermediate workflows, and specifically consults on RED One workflows and the Scratch color correction software. Tissavary most recently held the position of president of Maxsar Post. Tissavary joins the DI team, which includes senior colorist John Cathel and associate colorist Chuck Klatt from Postique along with senior colorists Pat Mathews and Rob Randall from Grace & Wild Studios….
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