ios Hackulous, the pirated iOS app community, abruptly closes

[Lord Method Man]

Pirated software and iOS, two things I have absolutely nothing to do with.

[Dinggus]

Yet they can afford an iPhone?

Easy to own an iPhone when they are free with a 2 year contract now.

[HawkMan]

Easy to own an iPhone when they are free with a 2 year contract now.

They are not free with a contract, they are free with a down payment contract. Buy a regular pone and you get a cheaper contract.

[Elliot B.]

I will miss Installous dearly :(

Pirated software and iOS, two things I have absolutely nothing to do with.

Then why are you posting in this topic?

[Tidosho]

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!! This too!! :)

Spot on, well said Cork! I agree. Whether it's operating systems or programs, there's always a good free one that is equal to or better than a paid one. Windows and Linux Mint come to mind. I've been a Windows guy for years, but my Linux consultant girlfriend has me using Mint and OpenSUSE, and I can't thank her enough as Mint is just as good as Windows if not better. Programming on it for cross platform is actually easier which helps me a lot as I'm a .NET/Mono & GTK/Glade dev.

Admittedly, in my job of IT and electronics repairs there ARE paid programs such as HDD Regenerator & GetDataBack that free doesn't come anywhere near for functionality or ease of use. I love opensource for the simple fact that if there's a problem with the program and I'm skilled enough I can fix it, no waiting for Patch Tuesdays (Yeah, MS!) or for someone else to do it. Anyone who calls programmers Open Source Extremists are just jealous because we're good at what we do :)

[Dinggus]

They are not free with a contract, they are free with a down payment contract. Buy a regular pone and you get a cheaper contract.

$0.99 for an iPhone 4 is practically free. It's alot cheaper than $199 for an iPhone.

[Beyond Godlike]

It's definitely a lot easier to pirate hard work on Android.

LOL @ These iOS fanboys. The jailbreak mods were so universal that i cant imagine how anyone considered Android a more piracy friendly platform compared to iOS(unless they were doing based on counts rather than percentage rates, then ofc, android is FAR more popular). Every single person thats jailbroken their phone was a pirate pretty much because it was tons easier than on android.

As for ppl saying Paid apps are a ripoff, thats true on iOS, because almost everything costs money and the whole platform is designed to gouge you, straight from the overpriced yet underpowered device, to the apps.

On android, there are clear differences between most paid apps and their free counterparts.

As for this hackulous thing, pirates will always be pirates, so Apple just lost a little market share.

[javagreen]

that's how the term isheep came about

Don't show them the mirror, they aren't going to like the baa baa black sheep they see in it :p

[Manish]

LOL @ These iOS fanboys. The jailbreak mods were so universal that i cant imagine how anyone considered Android a more piracy friendly platform compared to iOS(unless they were doing based on counts rather than percentage rates, then ofc, android is FAR more popular). Every single person thats jailbroken their phone was a pirate pretty much because it was tons easier than on android.

:rolleyes: Yes, because jailbreaking is synonymous with pirating. Pretty much no-one jailbroke their iOS device in order to use unofficial customisations/tweaks.

As for ppl saying Paid apps are a ripoff, thats true on iOS, because almost everything costs money and the whole platform is designed to gouge you, straight from the overpriced yet underpowered device, to the apps.

Android apps cost 2.5X more than iPhone apps

Canalys attributes the price discrepancy to two factors:

• Apple's more mature, controlled retail environment, which allows in-app purchases and drives app price competitiveness
  
• With fewer people willing to pay for apps on the Android Market, developers have to charge that much more to break even
  

Source: http://tech.fortune....an-iphone-apps/

In regards to the iPhone being an "underpowered device", I'd post benchmarks of the iPhone 5 outperforming Android devices out at the time, but there's no point bothering with someone that has a closed mind or is just ignorant.

[Quillz]

It doesn't matter if the app cost a single penny, piracy is a fact of life and people will always pirate, no matter what the cost of the app is. I think a lot of the time, it's more psychological, the "thrill" of getting away with piracy, then one not having the money to pay for an app.

[yowanvista]

In regards to the iPhone being an "underpowered device", I'd post benchmarks of the iPhone 5 outperforming Android devices out at the time, but there's no point bothering with someone that has a closed mind or is just ignorant.

Benchmark scores are completely synthetic and, largely theoretical. They?re also heavily influenced by optimizations in the software and the way the OS runs the benchmarking app. In other words, they?re not really all that important. Who cares if the X Android device scored less than the iPhone 5? At the end of the day, the only thing that matters is how your phone performs in real world use. If you don?t perceive any lag or slowdown in your daily usage of the phone, that?s all that matters. Nobody cares how the benchmarks compare to the competition as long as the phone handles thrown at it. Benchmark scores only give us a baseline for the maximum performance output of a phone under a very specific set of circumstances, nothing more.

[Manish]

At the end of the day, the only thing that matters is how your phone performs in real world use. Benchmark scores only give us a baseline for the maximum performance output of a phone under a very specific set of circumstances, nothing more.

Yes while I don't want to overplay the role of benchmarks, read my comment in the context of what I replied to; the intention wasn't to bash Android devices. In regards to the iPhone being potentially underpowered, I can only reference benchmarks as I cannot measure real world use. I could state my own experience of it not being laggy but that's hardly comparative or anything more than anecdotal.

[Dinggus]

It doesn't matter if the app cost a single penny, piracy is a fact of life and people will always pirate, no matter what the cost of the app is. I think a lot of the time, it's more psychological, the "thrill" of getting away with piracy, then one not having the money to pay for an app.

I agree 100%.

[sathenzar]

Personally I haven't rooted my android nexus 7 b/c I like paying for dev support. Being a programmer myself if I make an app and charge a small fee (ex. $0.99-2.99) I'd hope people would pay it to support me.

[HawkMan]

There's is no thrill about getting away with piracy, it's just the generation of kids today that expects to get everything they want, and to get it right now and not pay for it. they don't see consequences and they don't car about it. they simply don't want to pay for stuff if they don't have to.

[szo]

Yes while I don't want to overplay the role of benchmarks, read my comment in the context of what I replied to; the intention wasn't to bash Android devices. In regards to the iPhone being potentially underpowered, I can only reference benchmarks as I cannot measure real world use. I could state my own experience of it not being laggy but that's hardly comparative or anything more than anecdotal.

Yes, Anadtech says that the iphone/ipad cpu and gpu are somewhat the best at the moment. Ofcourse, android phones release like every week and there's bound to be a faster model. But the iphone 5 can stand on its own because it's highly optimized and there's very little lag if not at all.

[HawkMan]

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!!

This too!! :)

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.

Still waiting for corks reply. it's not like he ran away because he didn't have an answer or anything...

[qdave]

Was apprtacker part of hackulous?

[iascoot]

I did use Installous a few times for apps that I wasn't sure had the features I needed and I wanted to confirm first,

Always uninstalled then purchased the app if this was the case.

Not all apps are '99 cents'

Android does it right by letting you get a refund within 15minutes of purchase if you delete the app

[HawkMan]

I did use Installous a few times for apps that I wasn't sure had the features I needed and I wanted to confirm first,

Always uninstalled then purchased the app if this was the case.

Not all apps are '99 cents'

Android does it right by letting you get a refund within 15minutes of purchase if you delete the app

Apple lets you have a refun within reasonable time if you contact them, that's better than 15 minutes which in some situations is long before you can even use the app.

they used to do it right when it was 24 hours, they should have dropped it to 12 or at most 6 hours, the 15 minute thing is ridiculous and they might as well have just removed it altogether.

[Dinggus]

Was apprtacker part of hackulous?

Hackulo.us community was for people who used Installous. They owned Apptrackr, and designed Installous to be able to download straight to the iPhone/iPod/iPad.

So, yes.

[Shadrack]

They are not free with a contract, they are free with a down payment contract. Buy a regular pone and you get a cheaper contract.

That isn't necessarily so. Verizon and AT&T in the US just have their plans and that is it. Bring your own phone, get one of their subsidized phones under a 2 year contract...makes no difference in your monthly bill except that they require all smartphones to have a data plan (feature phones can be voice only).

I admit, I used Installeous once to install Sparrow to check it out. I found out that it wasn't worth the hype and uninstalled it. Then I uninstalled installeous. That whole thing reeked of malware vectors.

[HawkMan]

Yeah, but the you're still,on one of the overpriced plans, with the ridiculous 2 years contracts. Good thing 12 months is the max contract time for consumers over here.

[Shadrack]

Yeah, but the you're still,on one of the overpriced plans, with the ridiculous 2 years contracts. Good thing 12 months is the max contract time for consumers over here.

That is why you see the stories about Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T sales staff pushing consumers to Android instead of iPhone. iPhone 16GB is $650 and the big 3 sell subsidized for $200. Meanwhile, a new 16GB Android or WP phone costs $500 and the big 3 subsidized for $200. They make more money off a customer if they go with Android than iPhone because Apple requires a LOT of subsidization to be on a network.

You get the same plan either way, so IMO the iPhone is better if you are going with a 2-year subsidized contract. With an AT&T subsidized iPhone for $200, you can use for 2 years and then have AT&T unlock the phone and actually re-sell it for about $350. Try and sell a 2 year old Android phone for more than $50.

It is what it is and has nothing to do with being an iSheep or a Fandroid. Used Apple **** has amazingly high resell value, especially old unlocked iPhones.

I'm starting to prefer going straight to unlocked and using pay-as-you-go networks here because they are a LOT cheaper month-to-month (although lack LTE). The unlocked 16GB Nexus 4 was a steal at $350, so I went with that one for this round.

[migo]

Yet they can afford an iPhone?

$0 on contract, and a phone of some sort is a necessity, so the plan cost isn't an optiona expense that could be cut out to pay for apps.