

Hackulous shutdown - snihalani
http://hackulo.us/

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kiba
I had to google to figure out what the heck hackulous is:
[http://www.iphoneincanada.ca/jailbreak/hackulous-shuts-
down-...](http://www.iphoneincanada.ca/jailbreak/hackulous-shuts-down-kills-
piracy-app-
installous/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+iphoneincanada+\(iPhone+in+Canada+Blog+-+Canadas+%231+iPhone+Resource\))

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MojoJolo
After reading this a while ago, I thought that piracy in iOS is over. Then I
learned that there are various apps that offers "pirated" apps. AppCake
(<http://iphonecake.com/appcake/en/>) is an example.

But well, it's been a long time since I jailbreak-ed my iOS device. It is
because I'm not really comfortable doing the jailbreaking process. Also,
waiting for a jailbreak for new versions of iOS made me realized that there
are various free apps that are good, or also better than paid apps.

~~~
killerpopiller
sigh, I feel uncomfortable not having a jailbreaked phone. Don't you guys need
a root shell?

I have to ssh into a server to do basic maintenance work, like it is something
illegal.

Btw. trying out apps via hackulous helped me decide, which one to buy.

Besides, there are poor ppl out there with iDevices. Did you know, that in
european apple&itunes-store the prices are often the same or higher, just with
a €-symbol? And that europeans earn comparable less and pay higher taxes.

iMac: 2618$ iMac: 2678€

Pirating helps ppl participating in society and we creators/media
professionals canafford them.

~~~
bpatrianakos
Once again we see the entitlement attitude used to defend piracy.

So first off, iDevices aren't made for hackers. They're made for consumers.
The amount of people who need a root shell on their iPhone is probably about
the same amount of people who will post in this thread saying they need a root
shell (I'm exaggerating but it's a seriously small number).

There are free apps that let you SSH into servers already on the app store. If
one doesn't suit you there's always the option of creating one. Too expensive?
Then submit it to one of the stores for Jailbroken iPhones. They'll probably
be more interested in it than the regular App Store using population anyway.

Trying out apps before you buy one is a really great idea and I wish it was
possible with iOS apps. I get people using Hackulous and such to try apps
before they buy but what I don't buy into is this idea that there's a huge
population of iOS users who are using Jailbroken phones and apps to "try
before you buy". I don't have solid numbers and I doubt anyone really does but
experience and observation tell me that the amount of people who Jailbreak a
phone just to try before you buy is incredibly low with the majority just
trying and never buying. I myself Jailbroke my first generation iPhone when I
first got it. You know what I did with it? Totally got a bunch of paid apps
for free with intention of never paying for them. I was poor and even $0.99
was too much for me. I was an asshole and I know this. I haven't done that
since 2008 or so though.

Now, when you say "Besides, there are poor ppl out there with iDevices" my
mind gets kind of boggled. How in the hell are poor people getting iDevices if
they're so poor? If they can afford even the subsidized iPhone or the low-end
iPod then you'd think an app that costs $0.99 - $2.99 wouldn't be all that
much. But even if we assume this is a valid reason (excuse is the word I'd use
personally) does being poor entitle you to goods at a lower cost or free? I've
been poor. I know what poor is better than most and I can say that looking
back I wasn't _so poor_ that I couldn't afford iOS apps. I was just incredibly
cheap as a result of how poor I was. That $1 - $5 was just going to get pissed
away on something equally stupid and quickly squandered like a pack of
cigarrettes. I feel for the poor people but I can't get behind the idea that
it's alright to pirate software because you can't afford it. The old "they
wouldn't buy it anyway" argument is so lame. If they wouldn't buy it anyway
then they shouldn't have it anyway and maybe if they couldn't circumvent the
payment process they'd actually give saving up for whatever "they" want to
pirate the ol' college try.

Pirating helps people participate in society you say? Depends on your
definition of participate. If it means they get to use a copy of Photoshop for
free rather than something cheaper that they paid for that's really not good
participation. Again, I've been on the shit-end of poor and I was able to
participate as a creator without piracy. Yes, I did do it but there was
nothing stopping me from participating with what I had available. I feel like
this whole line of thought comes from this weird idea that many young people,
my peers (I'm only 26), have these days that somehow we're somehow entitled to
start out at the top. That we're too good to "slum it" and work our way up.
Participating in society could mean doing the ethical thing and paying for the
goods you use. That's good participation the way I see it.

So iMacs are more expensive overseas. That sucks. It really does. But I doubt
it's some conspiracy to empty the pockets of European Mac users. That's life,
man. Some things suck but you just do what you gotta do to make it.

~~~
killerpopiller
and I see the self-righteous attitude

@piracy is not right but we all can afford and tolerate it. The above
statement strikes me as fundamentalistic, it seems to disregard the arbitrary
character of content-pricing, it's virtual nature and insinuates that copying
is stealing. We don't live in an ideal world and pretending everyone can "do
it" and who doesn't is lazy, is propaganda.

piracy is more than downloading apps, it's movies, tv-series and so on, ppl
with low income who can't, don't deserve it then?

@terminal emulators the most used app on my iphone2G was erika sadun's
utilities, I didn't pirate any app.

Lets look to slovakia. With under 1000$ average income you would invest in PS6
for 800€ esp. if you start your own project? - The alternative would be gimp?

@iMacs haven't talked about conspiracy, just showing that framesets are
different.

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conradev
I think this is good.

Jailbreaking is often associated with piracy and circumventing DRM, when
piracy is only a possible side effect of jailbreaking. The true purpose is
getting complete control over the device.

Piracy will always exist on iOS, but now it is less prominent and less public.

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Karunamon
Kind of sad. I've used Installous more than once to demo expensive
applications to see if they're any good before tossing the cash down.

Why? The App Store store lacks so much as the refund mechanism you see over on
Android. If you end up with a turd app, you have no recourse.

~~~
blntechie
Windows Phone and Windows 8 marketplaces are the best of the app markets in
this regard. There is almost always a "try" mode and it can be time,
transaction or feature restricted or just the full app with ads.

It's in one way a drawback to WP developers. They have full control on whether
to provide 'try' option or not but almost every user expects the app to have
the option before putting in money. So not providing a 'try' option will be a
lose-lose situation for the developer. But it's a huge boon to the user. I've
tried countless of apps only to end up not purchasing many as they are poor or
sometimes the trial app is good enough to use.

~~~
freehunter
With one app, I remember a stink being raised over them not having a trial for
their game. It was Infinite Flight, a flight simulator app. The developers
announced the game on reddit, and many of the comments were related to not
having a trial for a game which cost a few dollars rather than 99c. The
developers mentioned they did not include a trial because they were afraid
people outside their target audience would try it, realize it's a flight
simulator and not a traditional game, and leave poor ratings based on
misconceptions.

I believe they eventually broke down and released a trial, but it does
underscore the point that trials are very much encouraged on Windows Phone
coupled with the idea that sometimes not having a trial can be for good
reasons.

~~~
reiichiroh
Isn't the Xbox/Windows Live/Zune/Microsoft billing back end a nightmare? I
remember there being a EU-centric website protesting the lack of data
portability that is mandated by EU law.

To be fair, being in different countries trying to access/retain (you lose all
your purchases with the MS stuff if you switch countries) your "purchased"
content is still a clusterfuck even with Apple and Amazon, but I recall my
experience with MSN/Live being totally fucked up for just wanting to change my
address.

Their recent shuttling of Games For Windows Live redirected users to vague no-
detail error messages on Xbox.com for stuff like having to login and accept
new EULA terms.

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avolcano
I have to say, Installous was actually a _really_ impressive app for what it
was.

It was literally as simple to use as the original App Store, which was
incredible. I've never seen that kind of excellent design in an app designed
for piracy. It seriously "just worked" in the same way that you'd expect any
iOS app to work: you searched for an app, clicked install, it'd take you to a
mirror (usually on a site like Mediafire), download it in the background, and
install. The interface had a shocking amount of polish, too.

I can't really argue, as a developer, that it's a shame that development has
stopped on it, but still - there must be a lot of smart developer talent in
that group that will hopefully be put to better use now :)

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Benferhat
I wonder if this will spur the creation of something distributed and more
resilient, like what Android has in Aptoide [1].

[1]
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bazaar.ins...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bazaar.installer)

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krichman
That's disappointing. They had a package that let me test programs I developed
on my own device.

~~~
spobo
Oh that's cool. Didn't know about that.

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cremnob
This is great for the iOS ecosystem (until an alternative pops up, but
hopefully the community will be splintered).

~~~
mrgoldenbrown
Lots of people are saying similar things. Does anyone have data on whether
sales actually go up after an event like this? I suspect the people pirating
your app aren't going to pay for it, they're just going to not use it.

