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Strollerderby
11-Year-Old Smarty Pants Develops iPhone App
When I’m tooling around town, I like to daydream about get rich quick schemes. Besides winning the lottery, playing the market or getting a big old book deal, one of my most current and prevalent fantasies is of designing a best selling iPhone App. But you know what stops me – besides a great idea- not knowing how to do the programming. Did that get in the way of 11-year-old Owen Voohees? No way Jose.
Over the last 9 months, Owen has buried himself in college level computer science books, a foreign programming language and “a mountain of doubt” to build his very own iPhone application. His creation MathTime debuted last month on Mac’s App Store and soon rose to number thirteen in the paid educational apps section.
What is MathTime? It is like a flashcard drill which includes addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. But Owen didn’t do it all alone. Nope, he enlisted an ‘art guy’, his 9 –year-old brother Finn who did the math graphics in PhotoShop.
Owen said about creating the tool, “I thought it would be cool…It’s really cool to make something work, to make a little money, to do something like this and see it up” on the App Store.” In one day the .99 cent app was downloaded 141 times. “It started booming,” said Owen, “I woke up and I was like, I’m an entrepreneur now.”
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19 Comments
Mistress_Scorpio commented on Jul 01 09 at 8:15 pmThat is the definition of awesome.
GP commented on Jul 01 09 at 9:25 pmso so very cool!
Manjari commented on Jul 01 09 at 10:36 pmYes, incredibly awesome!
Brett Singer commented on Jul 02 09 at 8:38 amI love it. I’ve been saying for awhile that kids just learn how to use computer programs these days, not how to make their own programs. I’m very pleased to be wrong.
҉ commented on Jul 02 09 at 10:51 am“In one day the .99 cent app was downloaded 141 times”
Ohh, so the guy made 139.59 cent or 1 dollar and 39 cent one day.
Uh, what an entrepreneur he is.
He could have made more from collecting cans and bottles.
Moj commented on Jul 02 09 at 11:07 am^^ Are you serious? $0.99 x 141 = $139.59 in a day. Learn to math
Elusiverick commented on Jul 02 09 at 11:15 amInspirational; Your gunna be RICH, you have ” IT ” !!!
Ryan commented on Jul 02 09 at 11:45 amMa: Two things… First, this iPhone app can help you out quite a bit. Second, there isn’t an app to collect cans and bottles yet…
Josh commented on Jul 02 09 at 1:32 pmYou really are an absolute moron, huh ma? It is people like you who make the rest of the people on the internet laugh. You give me shame that we are the same species
BigTuna429 commented on Jul 02 09 at 2:29 pmTechnically ma is right. The article says the apps were sold for .99 cents, which is almost a whole penny per app(that’s a good deal). Obviously we all know the article meant 99 cents or $0.99. So in your defense, ma, your math skills are on par, you’re just a super critical douche.
Lorrie commented on Jul 03 09 at 2:58 pmgood catch BigTuna… and thx for the laugh on the super critical douche comment. teehee.
amused commented on Jul 03 09 at 5:52 pmThe apps were not sold for a total of .99 cents! Each app was sold for .99 cents, equaling $139.59 for the day. Just like moj said. This is hysterical.
faggot commented on Jul 04 09 at 9:43 amSimple mistake, give the guy a break.
Lackey commented on Jul 05 09 at 8:37 amThe article clearly states “.99 cent app” So it was sold for 99% of a penny according to this article. So before you go bashing ma who clearly was the only one to notice, I would bash SunnyChanel.
Erm commented on Jul 17 09 at 12:53 pmWho gives a fuck. His app rose to number 13 in the paid educational apps section. The kid is getting paid. Stop hating.
Choades commented on Nov 18 09 at 7:58 amYou guys are choades. Super. Critical. Choades.
Honey Boy commented on Nov 19 09 at 12:35 amThe iPhone SDK is really easy to use. Don’t praise him for his “programming” skills. And don’t tell me I couldn’t do it. It’s not that I couldn’t do it it’s just that I can’t come up with an idea that hasn’t been done. So what I am lacking is imagination.
loleuros commented on Nov 23 09 at 10:52 pmHe was obviously making a joke.
bloop
Alex commented on Jun 10 10 at 9:21 pm:D haha when i was 11 i made a math application just like that :D, just it was for windows
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