Director Steve Beck, formerly of Industrial Light + Magic Commercial Productions, San Rafael and Los Angeles, has joined bicoastal Reactor Films. Word is that Reactor is also about to add director/designer Linzi Knight, who continues to be partnered in Toronto house Red Rover….In an effort to satisfy the debts of New York-headquartered Shooting Gallery Inc. (SGI), its Toronto-based parent, itemus, has issued a preliminary base shelf prospectus that—if approved—would permit itemus to issue shares of itemus stock to SGI creditors; itemus is liable for up to $10 million of SGI debt. Meanwhile, a group of SGI investors has filed suit against SGI, itemus and former SGI president/CFO Stephen Carlis, alleging that SGI failed to pay investment returns and accusing Carlis of fraud and deliberate misuse of funds. As earlier reported (SHOOT, 7/6, p. 1) SGI’s financial problems undermined its profitable commercial and music video shop, Shooting Gallery Productions, which closed in late June…..Director Tryan George has come aboard bicoastal M-80 Films. George was most recently with now defunct The End….Director Eric E. Fitzpatrick and bicoastal Cohn+Company have parted ways….89 Greene, New York, is adding editor Paul Kelly who comes over from BUG Editorial, New York. Kelly’s official 89 Greene start date is Sept. 1….Larry Pecorella, partner/composer at Chameleon Music, Chicago, has signed with Com/track, Chicago, where he joins composers Bryan Rheude, Dave Hutten and Justin Hori; the Chameleon Music staff—including in-house rep Marya Fletcher—will merge into Com/ track….In other Windy City news, Chicago-headquartered post shop The Filmworkers Club has acquired Astro Color Laboratories, Chicago. Filmworkers also owns Chicago-based sister shop, Sanitary Lab….Creative ad boutique Elvis & Bonaparte, Portland, Ore., has shuttered. Several of the shop’s personnel are expected to launch a new venture, according to Dave Helfrey, the agency’s former VP/creative director …Caroline Jones, a creative director/copywriter who founded, among other ad shops, Mingo, Jones, Guilmenot—now the Chisholm/Mingo Group, New York—and Caroline Jones Inc., also New York, died of cancer on June 28 at the Calvary Hospital, Bronx, N.Y. She was 59….Ronald Monchak, a longtime creative executive in the Detroit advertising community passed away June 26 of leukemia. Monchak retired as chairman of D’Arcy Detroit, Troy, Mich., in 1993…
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