Chicago-based post house Optimus has inked a deal to buy offline editorial shop Edit Sweet, Chicago. Plans call for Edit Sweet staffers—including partner/editor Jan Maitland, editors Katie Wrobel, Craig Lewandowski, Tim Kloehn and Steve Mach—to work out of the Optimus facility. Optimus president Tom Duff related that his company intends to launch a Santa Monica-based operation to be headed by Edit Sweet partner/editor Jim Staskauskas, who is slated to move to Southern California.….. Backyard Productions, the Venice, Calif.-headquartered production house headed by founders, executive producer Blair Stribley and head of sales Roy Skillicorn, has launched Transistor Studios, a new media group under the aegis of digital producer Damon Meena and creative director Jared Plummer. The new venture will specialize in creating design-oriented Web sites, DVDs, motion graphics and interactive online experiences….Director David Emery has joined bicoastal Treat for spot representation….ARF & Co., Hoboken, N.J., has signed director Ross Whitaker…cccp ny has added director Paul Riccio to its roster…. Los Angeles-based animation house Duck Soup Studios has signed Evil Cat Land, a directing team consisting of Walter Santucci, Pete Doan, Seth Strong and Layron DeJarnette. The directorial ensemble is named after the Evil Cat character, star of several Santucci-directed underground films which toured internationally as part of Spike and Mike’s Sick and Twisted Festival…. Director Cadmo Quintero has joined Metro Pictures, Marina del Rey, Calif….Flame artist Joe Wenkoff has come on board Red Car New York…..Marty Orzio, a co-executive creative director at Merkley Newmam Harty & Partners, New York, on the Mercedes-Benz account has left the agency to pursue other options. His duties will be assumed by Randy Saitta and Andy Hirsch, co-executive creative directors on the Mercedes business…. Minneapolis-headquartered agency Fallon is expanding globally. The shop is set to open offices in São Paulo, Brazil, Singapore and Hong Kong. The agency also has offices in New York and London…. San Rafael, Calif.-based Autodesk has finalized its deal to acquire Media 100’s software product line for $16 million cash. The streaming media software solutions from Media 100 figure to enhance the content creation product portfolio of Autodesk’s Montreal-headquartered division Discreet, meaning that Discreet customers will be able to create, distribute, re-purpose and publish media content for consumption via the Internet, corporate Intranets and IP-enabled devices such as cell phones and PDAs…..
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