Filed under: App Store
Sketchy site offers iPhone apps 'at a price that's a steal'
iPhoneApps.org, currently the top Google result when searching for "iPhone apps," offers 10 apps for $25, including much-sought-after MMS and video recording capability.
But hold on there, pardner, because it looks like they make you jailbreak your phone to get the apps to work. According to a post by a disgruntled customer at Yahoo! Answers, the site is only selling ZiPhone, and instructions on how to install the apps shown on their homepage.
If this post is correct, this reeks of scamminess, since nothing mentions ZiPhone anywhere on their site before purchase. ZiPhone is also freeware. Not cool.
Apple and The Jobsmeister also made it pretty clear that the App Store (via iTunes) was the only place to get apps for your iPhone or iPod touch. Now, we all know that's not necessarily the case, but to base a business around breaking the rules historically hasn't worked.
[Via PC World and Gedeon Maheux, the latter with NSFW language.]
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Daniel Vargas said 12:11PM on 7-22-2008
Go to www.scammers.com and I'll bet you a full gas tank that they are on top of the list!!!!! I trust them as much as I would trust the L.A.P.D.
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Ares said 12:26PM on 7-22-2008
I went to scammers.com but there was no list! How do I get my tank of gas?
ccmn2000 said 12:12PM on 7-22-2008
It can't be 2.0.
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Jason said 12:20PM on 7-22-2008
I clicked "Buy Now" and PayPal's site said "This recipient is currently unable to receive money."
Bahahahaha!
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Mark said 12:24PM on 7-22-2008
Way to increase their google page rank by linking to the site. o_O
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Robert Palmer said 12:27PM on 7-22-2008
Douché. I've removed the link.
Rhywun said 1:13PM on 7-22-2008
Surely you meant "touché".
ZeroCorpse said 2:31PM on 7-22-2008
I'm not so sure...
Craig said 12:25PM on 7-22-2008
Quote from Paypal when you click the buy button
"This recipient is currently unable to receive money."
Maybe Apple complained that PayPal was facilitating breach of copyright, so PayPal suspended the account! :)
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Hawkman said 12:27PM on 7-22-2008
"ZiPhone is also freeware." More to the point, it doesn't, and probably won't ever, work with OS 2.0. Why aren't they selling Pwnage instead?
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Sergey said 12:33PM on 7-22-2008
Actually, it's also a violation of GPL for all those nice applications they list.
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Robert said 12:54PM on 7-22-2008
It's not a violation of the GPL.
There is nothing (except for common morals) to prevent me from selling any GPL software I want at any price I can get a sucker to pay for it.
I simply have to provide source upon demand.
Hawkman said 12:35PM on 7-22-2008
Also - have you reported this guy to Apple's trademark team? Seems like there are several violations there. http://www.apple.com/legal/trademark/guidelinesfor3rdparties.html
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Kev Orng said 1:04PM on 7-22-2008
Ah yes, I was looking at this the other day.
Some nice apps that I had previously downloaded for free from Installer under 1.1.4 Even the screen shot of the ebooks app had the exact same book loaded as I had when I tried that app out. "adventures of sherlock holmes." It was at the top of the list.
They may be related to iphoneunlockuk which is the site that was reselling pwnage. I think this might be the case because when I clicked on "unlock" it took me to iphoneunlockuk.
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Rhywun said 1:16PM on 7-22-2008
Of course if the FSF had their way, this would go from 'sketchy' to 'standard operating procedure'.
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DrDiesel said 1:16PM on 7-22-2008
A WHOIS lookup even seems to be overly active for them:
WHOIS information for: iphoneapps.org:
[whois.publicinterestregistry.net]
WHOIS LIMIT EXCEEDED - SEE WWW.PIR.ORG/WHOIS FOR DETAILS
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punkassjim said 1:21PM on 7-22-2008
I love how their banner says "$24.95," yet the box image says $49. That just says quality.
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mcdj said 1:22PM on 7-22-2008
These guys need a world wide web slap.
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Jutzuro said 1:41PM on 7-22-2008
This makes no sense. If people are intelligent enough to search "iPhone apps" in Google, considering that they have heard of "iPhone Apps" that are to be installed and executed in your iPhone, how haven't they heard of Installer.app, Cydia, the Apple App Store...etc, HOW CAN THEY PAY FOR THIS????. I mean, something is wrong here.
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T Webb said 1:54PM on 7-22-2008
I sent emails to the developers on 15 Jul making them aware of the issue. I hadn't heard back from everyone.
Here are 2 responses:
VNSea: Laughing....
> I'm going to offer VNsea on App Store for Free soon.
> That should put an end to all that :-D
>
> thanks for forwarding it!
Ringtone: > Damned!!! WTF!
>
> Thanks for reporting
>
> I'll write now to the site owner and make a news on my site.
>
> Thanks a lot!
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