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Filed under: News, iPhone

iPhone app pirates now stealing from one another

Developers who work on rival iPhone App Store pirating apps -- Installous and Mega -- got into a dispute that resulted in Mega's app pirating system itself being pirated. It's not that Installous minded a little competition in the iPhone app piracy game, it's that Mega had the audacity to charge monthly subscription fees to access its library of unlocked app store software. Apparently, even pirates have their limits.

The Installous developers attacked Mega by releasing Grabulous, an app that let users plunder Mega's servers and download apps without paying the subscriptions fees. After some back-and-forth with Mega blocking Grabulous and Installous releasing a new version, it appears that Mega is switching from the subscription model to an ad-and-donation supported system. Sounds smart to me. The attraction of pirating apps is that they're free. If you're going to charge, then even people who are ok with piracy are better off giving their money to the official app store, where some of it will reach the pockets of developers.

[via Daring Fireball]

Filed under: Fun, Google, Search

Google like a pirate (and other useful language tools)


There's a nondescript little link on the Google front page that might have escaped your notice, even if you search Google every day. If you've ever clicked "language tools," though, you know how many languages Google supports. The relevant one for our Download Like a Pirate Day here at Download Squad is, of course, "pirate."

When you set Google's language to pirate, you can "searrrch," look at some nice "engravin's," or set "me likes an' dislikes." This is all pretty silly, of course, but I thought it would be a good opportunity to point out the language features of Google, which can actually be quite useful. Except for this one day of the year, not too many people still speak pirate, but I hear Chinese, French and Arabic are pretty popular.

Filed under: News, Windows, Microsoft

Hong Kong likes Windows Vista

Sure, Vista sales might not be the greatest so far, and Microsoft has already made the bizarre announcement of "Vienna" to follow in 2009, but things aren't all bad for Microsoft's bouncing baby OS. While SFGate reports on Microsoft's efforts to squash rampant piracy in China, ButterBoom has some choice quotes from a South China Morning Post report that says Vista says are doing pretty darn well in Hong Kong. To quote Adam Anger, director of Microsoft's Hong Kong business marketing organization:

"Some retail shops have told us that they have been selling 30 times more than what they usually sell, especially during the launch weekend on February 3 and 4. Some even said that their sales were comparable to high-selling holiday seasons like Christmas."

However, in this blogger's opinion, those numbers might be somewhat skewed both from Microsoft's efforts to 'inspire' Chinese citizens away from their pirating ways, as well as the fact that Windows XP has been around long enough for nearly everyone who wants a copy to get one - legitimately or otherwise.

Featured Time Waster

Graveyard Shift - zombie-busting Time Waster

With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet. They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...

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