from Hacker News

Hackulous Shuts Down, Taking Its iOS Piracy App Installous With It

by suhailpatel on 12/30/12, 8:07 PM with 21 comments

• by biot on 12/30/12, 10:59 PM

  This underscores the fact that piracy isn't about the money; it's about availability and convenience. If only the app creators would make their apps available on some kind of easy-to-use online store where installation is a breeze, customers are automatically informed of updates they can download for free, and all this is provided for a few bucks an app, we'd see nobody resorting to using piracy apps like these.

• by spobo on 12/30/12, 9:35 PM

  This is definitely a good thing. Support the developers. It takes a lot of time and effort to build an app. Surely a single dollar (usually) is not too much to pay. Im' still surprised how cheap most apps are for my phone ;o

• by josteink on 12/30/12, 10:08 PM

  While another App store (even used for pirated apps as well) is probably a good thing, and having fewer sources of software (less competition) is bad, I have to say: good riddance.

  It wasn't exactly ethical, and even when used for semi-legitimate purposes (obtaining software "not available" in your region) it was slow, cumbersome and unreliable.

• by homosaur on 12/30/12, 11:02 PM

  Honestly as a user, Installous totally sucked. The thing was rife with malware and it was impossible to tell which apps were legit and which were malware. I tried it a couple of time just to see what it was like (this was also before widespread app reviews) and although you could grab apps for free, it wasn't reliable or safe.