Hackulous, the pirated iOS app community, abruptly closes

By +Frank B.
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Grand Master

+Frank B. Subscriber²

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Hackulous, the pirated iOS app community, abruptly closes

Hackulous, the community and website behind the popular app Installous, has been shut down. In a statement on the Hackulous website, the team says the site has been shuttered due to a "stagnant" community and forums that resemble "a ghost town." The Hackulous repository used for jailbreak app Cydia has also gone offline, taking Installous? a downloader for cracked iOS apps ? with it.

It?s a sudden and abrupt move considering the popularity of the website and associated app. The reason for the closure doesn?t seem to make much sense either, according toTorrentFreak, who contacted two people familiar with the matter claiming that the site still had "plenty of users." As TorrentFreak points out, though, the absence of a jailbreak for the iPhone 5 ? as well as increasingly long wait times for updated jailbreaks for new versions of iOS ? could also have played a part in the shutdown.

Source: The Verge

Grand Master

cork1958

Posted
Posted

I for one buy all my Apps; I support the Developer wherever possible and have always hated projects / communities like this.

You are just to gullible then as with just about ANY app/program, there is just about ALWAYS an equally as good free one.

I can't remember the last time/year I actually paid for any app or program. Personally, there is nothing out really worth paying for!!

I think they all just realized it would be easier to switch to Android.

This too!! :)

  • Tidosho, migo and psmoked
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Grand Master

+jamesyfx Subscriber²

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I remember Jailbreaking and using Cydia and Installous on my 1G iPod Touch before we had the App Store, it was worth it then so you could install apps and customise your home screen and such.

But now you can do more or less the same things without needing to Jailbreak. So.. pointless.

Guest seanseany

Posted
Posted

Good , I don't like seeing small "Devs" getting ripped off ( on any platform) If it wasn't for these people then Android for instance wouldn't be what it is. Not sure about pricing on iOS , but you'd have to be a complete scum bag low life to pirate an app that cost a quid/dollar.

Im sure some apologist will be along to argue against this site being shut down, and plead how poor they are and they need to be free and not be oppressed ....... blah, blah, blah sob, sob, sob.

IMO shut down more and do it often .If you can afford the device you can afford the apps you cheap S.O.B peasants.

Happy new year to all :laugh:

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Grand Master

HawkMan

Posted
Posted

You are just to gullible then as with just about ANY app/program, there is just about ALWAYS an equally as good free one.

I can't remember the last time/year I actually paid for any app or program. Personally, there is nothing out really worth paying for!!

Sometimes, but usually NO. not at all. and even when there is it's usually ad supported which is plain horrible.

and since you're using program and not just apps, what's an equally good free alternative to 3DS MAX and Photoshop ?

as for apps on mobile, what's an equally good free app to the iOS Day One journal app, for Android ?what's an equally good camera app to CameraFX or ProHDR Camera ? I tried a ton of free podCast apps before I finally caved in and bought Double Twist on my android phone.

Mentor

javagreen

Posted
Posted

I could never understand how it got famous. Like most out there I've installed and tried Installous just to see what the hype is all about. Installous basically just took me to another file hosting website which offered the ipa download. Pretty stupid, IMO.

I've literally just bought 2 paid apps, just 2 (biteSMS and Springtomize). Everything else that I wanted/needed was free. Among the free ones, I particularly value the Gridlock app.

Mentor

Guth

Posted
Posted

I always buy all my apps too. Just the other day I went back through my online banking and I've spent ?100 on apps since 26th december last year!

Some probably spend way more, but I got quite a shock at just how much I had spent.

I always just think "Meh its only a few quid" but it certainly mounts up.

Things like iPhone are quite well protected and I had a friend who jailbroke his phone and nothing but problems since. So I've always just kept mine legit.

Grand Master

+Warwagon MVC

Posted
  • MVC
Posted

I always buy all my apps too. Just the other day I went back through my online banking and I've spent ?100 on apps since 26th december last year!

Some probably spend way more, but I got quite a shock at just how much I had spent.

I always just think "Meh its only a few quid" but it certainly mounts up.

Things like iPhone are quite well protected and I had a friend who jailbroke his phone and nothing but problems since. So I've always just kept mine legit.

I was going to pirate Angry Birds, but then I realized it was only .99 cents so I bought it.

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migo

Posted
Posted

Where one falls, another will rise.

Assuming there's active jailbreaking going on. Microsoft had a rather easy time shutting it down, by extending an open hand to the ChevronWP team. Apple tried the harder cat and mouse game, and had the advantage of a userbase that has a tendency of buying new hardware.

when i had my iphone i had that installed downloaded a few games realized how good the game was ans bought it .

this is a major blow to the jailbreaking community

I think it's more the downturn in jailbreaking was a blow to the app piracy community. That said, I don't hold the same ill will towards it that others do (at least publicly, I'm not really convinced people hate it as much as they say they do in private life). Everyone I know who pirates is broke. People who have a good cash flow don't see piracy as worth their time (it really is inconvenient, and only worth it if you really can't afford whatever it costs).

Proficient

szo

Posted
Posted

Pirates usually say that they cannot access the apps in their countries or it is too expensive. Seriously, I wouldn?t care about people in those countries nor would apple care! Apple has always never been much about marketshare! Look at the mac marketshare! They only care about paying customers! Even if the US was the only market, Apple would do perfectly fine. These people in these other countries are not entitled to anything. This sense of entitlement is stupid and Apple owes them nothing! If people want to pirate easily, they go to Android, where many apps are filled with ads because they find the ?paid apps? options doesn't work easily because .apk files are easily copied.

These apps just like the iphone and ipads are not a necessity, they?re a luxury. If they?re important to your business, then spend money from your pockets and profits to buy these important apps. There are enough free apps for most stupid 13 year old kids at home without credit cards. People who have jobs have access to debit visa cards even. As a developer, I really don?t care for these pirates. I don?t understand how you call the developers greedy. You?re not forced to buy these apps or upgrade. When you buy an app, you get what you have. When you go to a restaurant, and buy food and eat it there and then don?t like it, you cannot claim your money back. There are enough websites that give detailed app reviews such as macstories.net. Research before buying the app.

Developers are finding easy ways to track these pirates. These pirates for example steal the tweetbot app and then contact the developer on twitter to ask why the app isn?t working properly. The developers checks the username in his app and realizes this loser is running a pirated app and then humiliates this loser on twitter. Honestly, if you?re going to steal, don?t waste your time asking for customer support. Piracy will probably never go away, but they will make it much more harder with nagware to annoy the users into eventually buying or getting the hell out so these losers can stop wasting the developer?s time. I foresee that most software will eventually become SAAS (cloud subscription based). Look at Adobe creative cloud running with a monthly subscription or the latest simcity game requiring a constant internet connection to run properly. As internet connections get better, apps will eventually become cloud subscription based.

Installous getting shut down doesn?t stop the cool tweaks from working. Cydia helps those cool tweaks to work. Installous was just for pirated apps. These days apps are damn cheap from $0.99 to $2.99. Remember the days when software used to cost $50. Even by christmas, most big name apps either get free or almost $0.99. Most EA games were $0.99 by christmas. There are many ways to acquire apps legally either buying app bundles, getting itunes gift cards and other legal ways.

Those retards on torrentfreak amuse me with their excuses for pirating. There was recent article about how the piratebay has helped spread culture by letting losers access to pirated content from the west. I would wonder what would happen if these losers had their homes robbed or their money or property stolen. Apps, movies and music are all entertainment and not a necessity. There is never a 100% need or requirement to get them illegally. People just hoard on apps and will probably never use them.

Proficient

szo

Posted
Posted

that's how the term isheep came about

The term isheep is stupid. Ever brand has fanboys. I have seen girls buy those 5 inch galaxy note phones only to use maybe 20% of its features. They like larger screen. Yes electronics do make people happy and fanboys or fangirls are eventually born. These are not only phones anymore, more like portable computers that provide entertainment, communication and so much more.

Honestly, every serious company that cares about profit greatly only cares about their paying customers. Why do you think that Google is making their Google Apps with subscriptions only now? Because they don't want to waste efforts on free loaders and they know that businesses that have a need will pay for google apps.

Grand Master

n_K

Posted
Posted

Eh? This isn't related to jailbreak other than you needed the device to be jailbroken to use it.

No, loads of things provided by cydia are NOT AVAILABLE in the app store and wouldn't be allowed, please stop spouting such nonsense.

Difference: Cydia = an 'open' app store, comes with default legit repos and apps, you can add warez repos to it if you agree the warning and continue to do so.

Hackulous = nothing legit about it, all pirate apps from the apple app store.

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