Pirate app store Hackulous shut down

Hackulous, a name that should resonate with owners of jail broken iPhones for its links with cracked apps, has officially closed its doors, presumably for good, with little official word as to why.

As of yesterday, Hackulous went down meaning community news and updates would never be heard from again and the forums would no longer be accessible. However, with that also came the disabling of pirated app browser Apptrakr and the specialised tool for installing such software, Installous.  Only a short message on the Hackulous homepage, offers any sort of explanation for the end of service:

“We are very sad to announce that Hackulous is shutting down. After many years, our community has become stagnant and our forums are a bit of a ghost town. It has become difficult to keep them online and well-moderated, despite the devotion of our staff. We're incredibly thankful for the support we've had over the years and hope that new, greater communities blossom out of our absence.”

Some have pointed out the contradiction of a ghost town forum that's hard to moderate, suggesting that there could be more to this shut down than meets the eye. However even TorrentFreak‘s street cred in the pirate arena couldn't get it an interview with the creator, suggesting he really doesn't want to be seen above ground at the moment.

Whether this is some sort of back room threat or deal from content providers or app store owners is unknown. All we can say for sure is that Hackulous is down.

KitGuru Says: Apparently the admin of the site believed heavily in the try-before-you-buy mindset, which is becoming more of a common feature of contemporary apps. At least he could claim some responsibility for that as a legacy.

Become a Patron!