AppTrackr - which is a website that allows users to illegally download and install pirated iOS apps has announced (via Installous) that they have started receiving take down notices from Apple.
AppTrackr claims that Apple has been scrapping their links and sending them take down notices for a lot of their content, which has forced them to implement CAPTCHA checks to all outbound links.
ApplTrackr has also revealed that they've moved their servers and will be placing an ad on the CAPTCHA page to help them support their servers.
It is good to see Apple taking steps to prevent piracy of iOS apps, which has been an issue ever since Apple launched the App Store and should come as good news to developers. It remains to be seen if Apple can prevent piracy of iOS apps completely as it would also help in getting rid of the stigma of piracy that is unfortunately associated with jailbreaking.
Sometimes we wonder whether Apple would have taken a different stance if jailbreaking was not used for illegal activities such as piracy of apps.
[iJailbreak via 9 to 5 Mac]
My favourite site =(
Not anymore loser. Get a job, get laid, and buy some apps.
Go and screw yourself John!
Didn’t know the three went hand in hand. Maybe I’m doing it wrong?
LOL.
I love intallous! Still works great even with the advertising!
What on earth has that go to do with getting laid? Immature moron.
I didn’t even know people still used them and am shocked it took apple this long to go after them
Don’t worry. Nothing will change, Apple has to pretend that is taking measures to take down apptrackr, for the developers. Apple is getting a lot more money from selling hardware than selling software in any place. So Apple likes all this fancy jailbreaking and apptrackr free apps thing, though they have to pretend that they don’t like it.
Think of that, Cydia already has a huge store. And it is all based on jailbreaking. Imagine if the jailbreaking ends. Cydia will go down. And iphone/ipad etc sales will go down also.
Don’t worry developers make applications for us, we promise to fight jailbreaking and apptrackr… NOT! :p
Like
Apple makes $0.30 cents on the dollar for app purchases. With over a billion apps legally downloaded…. Where are they making money?
Hardware sales my ass. That’s child’s play compared to the gold mine the app store is.
AWSUM! i agree!
APPLE can’t stop them as soons as they are moving their servers in different countries…
i love installous
Funny thing is, people will go on and on about how apple is better than driod, and droids apps suck, yet they will blatantly steal programs via installous from programers making the apps they love for their iPhones.
Don’t you get it people. If you don’t support programers through the purchase of their apps, you will ultimately drive the programers out of the market and we will be left with crap apps like droid.
While I agree more programmers need to Demo their programs before we buy, stealing them is not the way to push the issue. And please don’t lie to yourself or us about how you buy after you steal… If its not free or 99 cents, I am guessing your credit card never leaves the wallet.
Now forgive me if I am ranting, and this isn’t meant to be a direct attack against pirates. But, 90% of the pirates are the same people whining about not having an untethered jailbreak, and how the phone is useless without a jailbreak. Useless because they won’t pay for their apps. I agree with Wolverinmarky, I am shocked it has taken this long for apple to get involved. The programmers haven’t had the money to fight legal battles and defend their software from piracy. Apple starting to defend their programers is long over due.
I myself want clean running apps hassle free. Now more and more every day, the apps are worthless without in app purchases/subscriptions, and the companies are getting greedier and greedier with the in-app stuff. Charge me 4.99 and let me use the app. Not charge me extra every time I want to use it. Is this partly greed on the company’s part… yes .. but its also largely due to rampant piracy. The only way to stop the illegal use of their apps, is to charge for access from within them. It’s destroying the market and killing us that pay for our apps.
@Paradox +1 to that
+1 to both of you, the only app i pirated was the I Am Rich app.
Most of us….get your novel that you just wrote. However, people like me, are sick and tired of being ripped off for apps that suck. If the app I got from Installous is worthy, then I’ll gladly buy from app store. “oh but it’s just $1″…whatever. That’s $1 times a million downloads for an app that sucks or is falsely advertised. Yeah, way to promote that developer for making a piece of crap app. The solution…offer 1 day trial demos for all apps. If it sucks, dont buy it. Too freakin’ easy.
agreed
I don’t disagree with you X. What needs to be done is have a method available for developers to secure their software but offer three day trials. After three days the program locks and gives you the option to buy via the in-app purchase.
“gives you the option to buy via the in-app purchase.” This part made me laugh, because there is already a free cydia app that allows no cost in-app purchases.
@ Soki
That, I didn’t l know
I actually do pay for the app after pirating it, if I like it that is. I’m not paying $ for something I may not like, just to delete it after finding out it’s crap. So I pirate it, and if I like it enough to keep, I go and buy the legit app from the app store. And I’m sure I’m not the only one, however few of us there might be. I agree with everything else you said though
I partialy agree with you. My point is app develpers won’t have enough new idea or concept to develp “amazing app” on this phone right now.
I have been using iphone 4 for 1.4 years. At the very beginning, i was so exciting about tons of apps. I wanna try them one by one. However, half a year later, i was so tired about those same concept apps. I don’t c any new apps can be defined as “amazing” any more in the next 1 year (except SIRI, that’s a good one). Currently, I have less than 20 apps installed on my iphone(85% of them are free apps), and 70% of all the apps I might only use once or twice a week. Some of them even once a month or none. I seldom check app store right now. At the end of the year, many website recommend apps sale here and there, I don’t even wanna to download it after checking what the app is about. No new concept, just apps awaste of my time.
Furthermore, Android cell phones provide road navigator for free, in app store they charge you at least $40+ for a decent nvigation app. Can you tell me why?!
“However, half a year later, i was so tired about those same concept apps” – That’s an interesting point. We think part of the issue is with the discovery process has become so tedious with more than 500k apps in the App Store.
Though we agree that the number of apps based on a new ideas has reduced, developers surprise us with beautifully designed apps that are a lot more intuitive to use. A good example is Tweetbot.
Btw, check out our top 50 must-have apps:
http://www.iphonehacks.com/2011/12/top-must-have-apps-iphone-ipod-touch.html
We hope you find some useful apps from that list.
I just use iap cracker for free in-app content
What no article on how to get pirated apps from apptrackr?
Look at iphone hacks trying to act like they never doanloaded a pirated .ipa lol
hahaah, true true
@Troy haven’t pirated a single app, the money needs to go into the pocket of hard working developers so we can motivate them to bring the next killer app to our iOS devices. Let’s also not forget that many of these developers do that for a living.
We do understand there are issues that Apple needs to address to protect users from fraudulent developers, but that can’t be an excuse to steal apps.
Just gonna copy and paste what I said before…If the app I got from Installous is worthy, then I’ll gladly buy from app store. “oh but it’s just $1″, whatever. That’s $1 times a million downloads for an app that sucks or is falsely advertised. Yeah, way to promote that developer for making a piece of crap app. The solution…offer 1 day free trial demos that includes ads for all apps. If it sucks, don’t buy it and you end with a “bi-winner”. Developer gets his $ from advertiser and consumer gets to try before buy, eliminating the need for Installous in order to do the same thing.
Please. And do tell what the excuse to “hack” phones is?
I feel like apple is trying to do what Sony, paramount, and all the big movie company’s are trying to do with their movies on torrent sites.
I really don’t think apple is going to get anywhere, soon anyway.
Isn’t like 90 percent of jail breakers running installous?
I use 4s n i hv more than 760 apps stored on itunes app store. There r many paid apps that sometimes gone free. Either celebrating new app launch or seasons greeting promo. I bought many great apps but sometime apple just kill it without any compensation to its customers such as itether n iconproject. Well i want a jailbroken 4s mainly sbsettings n some other cool stuffs that apple found it violating their policy if put on appstore. So not always jailbreakers r being blamed as pirates. I for one like to buy real apps coz they r easy to maintain with itunes n faster updates download. DUN be a cheap bastard !!!
Pirates are going to put the developers out of business? They’ve been saying that from day one. PC’s, consoles and smart phones are constant targets of piracy and they’re still here. I’m not saying its right, it just is. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has made more than a BILLION in sales, pirated or not. If you build it they will come! Make the best App you can and hope for the best, some will buy some won’t, life goes on.
Apple should allow users to test-run the apps for 24hrs. Some apps looks good but after you’ve paid for it, it sucks big time.
Until every single app has a trial (the 24hr thing sounds fair!) I will happily pirate apps and delete the total crap of which there are thousands, and purchase the few i’ll actually use more than once. There is no way I will ever get behind a system that makes the user jump through hoops to get $ back (if at all). even a buck here and there adds up, I don’t just walk down the street throwing money in the garbage cause it’s just a bit here and there either..
That would also scare away a lot of the devs out to cash in on the fact that they know most (not all, but most) people aren’t going to jump through said hoops to get $.99 back so they put together junk, get a couple friends to review it and put up 5 stars, then watch the $ roll in…
One funny thing I find about the ” I pirate only to see if it’s good then buy it”. argument is….
…. That if true, app tracker would have everything. But the truth of the matter is, he only apps people bother uploading to app tracker are he ones worth playing with. They really don’t waste time uploading garbage.
not true.. I’ve downloaded and deleted a lot of garbage from apptrackr
very true on your part…theres so much crap on there too. to sit there and sayut the truth of the matter is, he only apps people bother uploading to app tracker are he ones worth playing with. They really don’t waste time uploading garbage…your retarded…you have 2 eyes 1 mouth if you’d look twice as much as you open your mouth you wouldnt sound like such an idiot.
Well maybe if I spent more time being a pirate and less time working to make money, and pay for my apps, I too could spend all day downloading apps from apptrackr and have abetter frame of reference. Sorry if I use my time for other ventures.
One more thing, mywi cracked by sinfuliphone repo is the best thing for cydia. I pay for Internet for my house and for my iPhone. So why I should I pay to transfer the Internet to my iPad from my phone. I’m paying 25.00 dollars with tmobile for Internet and then to pay another 15 a month to tether with another 40.00 dollars + for home Internet. Its riduclous how we being used as consumer. I know the cable companies are kicking themselves in the buttocks for not inventing tethering or allowing someone to invent the wireless router. I love doing business when the consumer gets enough for a product that we don’t have to think twice if we should buy it or not because of the price. But one thing business will always have over us is the crave of materialistic thing and the society that promotes it.
So you blatantly admit you will not pay the programmers behind mywi for the work they do, but rather go to sinfuliphone and steal from the jailbreak community as well.
Duh why pay for it if you could get it free and second I already paying for Internet so that’s my contribution to the Internet world. I’m will not pay for something twice. I don’t heard time Warner screaming to the wireless router manufacturers that what they doing is illegal so why should I think what I’m doing is illegal. I’m already paying for Internet service and now they want to charge me for tether while broadband don’t pay customer to share there Internet. Have you heard of a word called Greed. Sinfuliphone repo are the real hackers, all you only guys are apple developer’ rejects that didn’t get approve by apple.
MyWi used to be $10.. now it’s $20. I agree, that’s too steep.. ATT is already trying to rape everybody for using data they already paid for.. MyWI is taking advantage of this situation.. either way, they were pretty good at thwarting hackers to the point where I actually stopped trying to find a cracked app and bought the damn thing.. $20 is too much for an app where there are other apps that do the same thing but arent as defined for $2.. either way, they won
I for one, pirate and buy. I pirate and then buy the ones i very much like. I’m no hypocrite so i will say it as is, i do on the other hand pirate the ones i like that i believe are too pricey. Come on people, $1 million downloads is a cool mill$, now price it as $9.99 then charge in app stuff = GREED. Call me what you want but i will pirate those apps. Some one mentioned people wanting to jailbreak to pirate. You are on point on that. That is one of the reason i want to jailbreak besides getting all those other good stuff from cydia as well.
A lot of people here talking like they don’t pirate can Kiss M A**
SlingPlayer is another example. You pay $299 for the hardware, you can freely get the software for a PC but if you want it on iOS or Android and its $29.99. Kiss my ass Sling. That’s my take for one nasty ripoff and greed. Plus the app isn’t even that great on either platform it works best off a PC.
and from when exactly apple care about app developer?
with all this rules and app rejection for appstore
or they just take % from every app that they sell in appstore and if this is right I dont think that they care for anything else only for money
I upgraded to an iPhone 4s and I’m patiently waiting for a jailbreak so I can reinstall Install0us again
remember when all cydia apps were free and AppTapp was the official AppStore? yeah.. for the most part since I’m on the 4s I’ve paid for all the apps that I can afford. Some of these apps I would have never found without Install0us.
funny…the same people who talk about how wrong it is to “pirate” apps and such, are the same people who stream/ download movies, music, etc… the same people who would never admit at one point they have or still do stream/download the above mentioned….so…what makes apps any different…everyone likes to jump on a bandwagon when it sounds good…stop being hypocritical if people want to “pirate” apps so be it, let them deal with the cost that comes with it, if you dont mind your own business and continue to do you
I subscribe to netflix for my movies or rent them from iTunes. I use pandora for music I don’t have, and pandorajam to legally acquire music for transfer. So .. yes I can talk about pirating apps.
that’s nice, nobody cares. people are going to pirate apps and that’s that.
second…how about we hear from people who actually dev these apps not some lame ass who supposely “knows” someone who devs, or someone who thinks theyre a so called “dev”. like they say assh**** are like opinions everyone has one…
I pirated the Tom Tom gps app. I hated it. All that time to download and I deleted it within 5 days. I’m glad I didn’t pay for it. The weather channel max I pirated. I like the app. I deleted that as well and bought it in the app store. A free trial is a must weather its 0.99$ or 49.99$.
I did the exact same thing
Exactly the same for Tom Tom.
No Pirate Apps = No Jailbreak; No Jailbreak = No iPhone.
And now a days, no iPhone = no Apple.
Be careful what you wish for.
Good point. Apple made a monster out of jailbreakers and unlockers but in reality and I know apple executives knew it from the start that jailbreaking and unlocking will only make apple look good espically for there reputation as a overprotected girlfriend.
Developers can always migrate to Android where it’s 10x easier to crack apps and 10x harder to develop for considering the fragmentation involved on all the different Android devices. My friends get jealous of these cracked apps.. they look for it on their device and either pay or crack it.. they don’t know whether I did or not.. in turn.. cracked apps = publicity for these developers.
I won’t deny I’ve done it with my iPhone back in the day but it’s comical that I’ve paid for more apps on Android with it being open than the iPhone.
Without root access some apps are a real SOB to crack and get running on an Android they’ve stepped up their game when it comes to copy protection.
I stool a bike from walmart, rode it around for a couple days didn’t like it so I left it by their dumpster. A week later walking in the walmart they recognized who I was and called the cops. I told them the bike wasn’t worth what they were asking for it, and being that I only took it for a couple days, it was no more than a free trial. What’s the harm in that? I can’t understand why they were so pissed.
LOL. I read your post about stealing a bike and thought about it for a while. I feel guilty now: What’s your address so I can pay you royalties for the (un)intellectual property?
On second thought, doesn’t MY use of the post in this way have ABSOLUTELY NO BEARING on your use/ownership/right to it?
This isn’t Kansas anymore.
That was so funny, now I really want to try it. I am going to go to the counter and demand my money back because I’m a poor person who knows that Walmart has a thirty day return policy. No problems. I bougHt a crappy app once for 40 buckaroos, then my wife wouldn’t give me **** for a week.
I think it would have been funnier if you had used McDonald’s instead.
I just realized that you wasted your time reading everything that I wrote, man I feel powerful.
P.s. I am too stupid to pirate apps, so I have to pay for everything. I am also too lazy to learn how.
I wouldn’t mind let you steal my bike if you can simply copy it like how you copy the app file as long as I keep having it too! Your example doesn’t make any sense!
They need a test period more like one month cause if I don’t use it a lot in that time I delete it cause it’s a waste of hard drive space. 24 hrs not long enough or a thirty day refund policy then they can make money keeping it in the bank collecting interest some apps take 24 hrs just to learn
1 mth? lol. People will get tired of majority of the games tbh.
like somebody stol a burger from Macdonald s
he did eat it and did not like it now he want
to turn sh**t back to them .
robbery is a robbery you can not justified it!!!!
LOL. It’s like English and yet not English, all at the same time.
mcdonalds in it so it must be “american”
So it’s ok to download movies but iphone apps are no bueno? yeah ok..
Who says its okay to download pirated movies?
don’t act like you haven’t done it
Really guy? Really?? Well then, if u wanna go that route and compare this to food…heres food for thought. Fast food restaurants at the mall give out free “samples”. If ya like it, you buy the full meal. And that’s what most of us are talking about on this thread. I refuse to hand over my $ to a crap app. I call it, borrowing, not stealing and if I like it, then I’ll buy it.
I agree with you that the App store needs to have “free” samplings and trials of all their apps. I also agree with Mac though, that in the end, stealing is stealing. It is hard now a days to think of something so virtual as a property. When you vision it as something you can hold, touch, or eat, like a “burger” as Mac says, you realize that you are still stealing something. It is understandable to justify stealing apps by saying that we buy enough crappy apps already, but working around the system and stealing is not the way to go about it. Maybe, by contacting Apple about the issue rather than by stealing, we can get what we REALLY want.
But most don’t like going about it the right way, it’s always about the easiest way now a days.
Apple can prevent piracy by modifying iTunes as these apps are installed through iTunes.
REALY you have something for free and you think someone will believe that you give money for it just because you like it ….
of course. It’s a pain in the ass to update apps on Install0us, it’s much easier to just buy the app if it’s worth it.
Most apps on AppTrackr aren’t the latest version as well.
yes and everyone believe you
Apple will likely place the burden on the devs since any of their security dependencies are exploited anyway. The devs will raise the cost of their apps to compensate for new security fetures and Apple will raise fees to the devs to allow built in app security on their device aka your device. The carriers will charge you 10¢ for app downloads over 3G and Apple will put ads on your lock screen for free access to the AppStore. While 99% of users play by the rules, us 1%’s will enjoy our freedom, for free
In otherwords screw my neighbor as long as I get what I want. I don’t like the rising costs of gas either so I just siphon off my neighbors gas too. Thats the price of freedom.
Your pessimism confuses me. What exactly is freedom for you when we are all slaves to consumerism – to getting the latest phones, tv’s, cars, clothes, etc., fueling large corporations to greedily make more and more money by not “screwing their neighbors” but maybe how about the “whole town”, if you want to use metaphors. If you want to be free, maybe start by getting rid of your wordly possessions that have really no actual value. Now, how deep is that for you?
LoL, its like trying to take down Torrent piracy… almost Impossible
if instullos down bye apple never will be back !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You guys are sad excuse for hackers, debating right and wrong…