Do you remember what you did during your freetime as a sixth-grader? I for one spent my days running around outside playing tag… maybe I played catch with my friends or threw around a football in a light-hearted game of two-hand touch. The last thing on Earth that I would have been caught doing during my early double-digit years of all times, is programming applications on a computer. That is exactly what this awesome pre-teen named Thomas Suarez has been doing in his free time, and he’s pretty darn good at it too! He has created two best-selling iOS apps named Earth Fortune and Bustin Jeiber (a whack-a-mole game?). Not only has he been spending his time learning a very important and innovative trade but it turns out his creations are phenomenal and have been receiving recognition from some of the power players in the App creation market. He was recently seen giving a speech at a TEDx ‘Transforming Learning’ convention, and it turned out extremely well, his soft-spoken and yet super innovative ways puts him on the same level as Steve Jobs when it comes to giving a good speech.
Onto his creations, Earth Fortune is an interesting yet simple app that has a ‘mood-ring’ feel to it. It gives you a (possibly random) selection of a colored earth and then explains what that specific color means. It essentially gives you a fortune in a new and interesting way. The creator describes it as “Earth Fortune is not like any fortune teller you have ever seen. It shows different color Earths, randomly, color coded depending on if your day will be peaceful, etc. Also, you can share your fortunes with your friends and family!” Cool idea, and being completely free to download and try out I can’t see why anyone would bash this app! Next up is his best-selling application, appropriately named Bustin Jeiber. In essence this is a take-off of whack-a-mole and you gain points by taking the floating JB heads that come across the screen at varying speeds depending on the level you have reached. This app retails at 99 cents which seems to be the app store average for a cute game in the ‘time-waster’ genre.
Another interesting way that Thomas is involved with Apple and App creation is through one of Apple’s own pilot programs based around learning and putting iPads into school environments for the purpose of learning. Essentially Apple gives a certain allotment of iPads to a school that demonstrates some need, and then they are asked to show how they have integrated the devices into their everyday classrooms to see just how much of a difference some added technology can make. It turns out the young Mr. Suarez actually helped start this program up at his school, and is running the new App/Programming club. Having this type of experience and well thought out plans for future inventions means that this kid is someone to watch for in the coming years, and as for his parents, can you say scholarship?
