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Rocket Internet-backed Zencap is an online finance marketplace for small firms in Germany

Mar31
by on March 31, 2014 at 9:03 am
Posted In: Around the Web, Germany, Product Launches

Cash money
Well-known incubator Rocket Internet has launched a new venture in Germany — Zencap, a digital credit marketplace for small and mid-sized enterprises to get financing without having to go through banks. Zencap essentially forms a bridge between entrepreneurs and private investors, allowing SMEs to apply for financing directly from Zencap. Entrepreneurs can apply for a loan in the range of €10,000 – €150,000, with a term of six to 60 months, after which the startup’s creditworthiness will be checked, and Zencap will propose a non-binding offer based on the firm’s risk class and the loan’s term. Only then will the credit project…

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Line now lets you replace your boring iOS or Android app icons with its cartoon figures

Mar31
by on March 31, 2014 at 8:21 am
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web, Japan, messaging

line cartoon
Messaging app Line wants to take over your phone’s screen. The company has announced a new feature – Line Deco — which lets users of both Android and iOS devices radically change the look of their device and icons. Line Deco essentially replaces default app icons with images of the app’s cartoon characters instead, and provides matching wallpaper options too. Line, which has nearly 400 million registered users, says that there are over 3,000 icon and wallpaper designs — all of which are free until the end of April, to encourage adoption. Line doesn’t actually replace your default icons, instead it…

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WhatsApp is now a medium for storytelling

Mar31
by on March 31, 2014 at 7:17 am
Posted In: Around the Web, Mobile

Here’s an interesting sign of the prevalence of messaging apps — and WhatsApp, in particular — in modern life. The soon-to-be-Facebook-owned app is being used as a medium for online storytelling. And a pretty compelling one at that too. While I must confess that this story isn’t my cup of tea, I’ve been surprised at how popular this WhatsApp-themed story on Storiesforyourscreen.com has been, at least among my own friends. Update: It seems that the site is having intermittent difficulties loading, though you can access a cached copy at the URL if it is down. It seems that the clever format of the…

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Ultrakam lets iOS cinematographers shoot at film-quality resolution

Mar31
by on March 31, 2014 at 7:02 am
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web, Product Launches, Product Reviews

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These days, it seems, everyone’s a videographer. We can attribute (or blame) that phenomenon at least partly on the ubiquity of video on smartphones and consumer cameras. But now there’s a way for mobile filmmakers of all levels to push even harder beyond creative limits. VFXWarrior today launched Ultrakam, the first and only iOS app that can record 2K video—a higher resolution than Full HD. With Ultrakam, you can shoot in either H.264 (iFrame) or M-JPEG codecs to yield up to 2240 x 1672 pixels, or 70 percent more than 1920 x 1080 Full HD. The app’s ability to capture 4:2:0…

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