WEBVTT

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Hello everyone,
my name is Thomas Suarez.

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I've always had a fascination
for computers and technology,

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and I made a few apps for the iPhone,

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iPod Touch, and iPad.

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I'd like to share a couple with you today.

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My first app was a unique fortune teller
called Earth Fortune

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that would display
different colors of Earth

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depending on what your fortune was.

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My favorite and most successful app

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is Bustin Jieber - (Laughter) -

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which is a Justin Bieber Whac-A-Mole.

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I created it because
a lot of people at school

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disliked Justin Bieber a little bit,

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so I decided to make the app.

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So I went to work programming it,

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and I released it just
before the holidays in 2010.

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A lot of people ask me,
how did I make these?

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A lot of times it's because
the person who asked the question

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wants to make an app also.

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A lot of kids these days
like to play games,

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but now they want to make them,

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and it's difficult,

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because not many kids know where to go

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to find out how to make a program.

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I mean, for soccer,
you could go to a soccer team.

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For violin, you could get lessons
for a violin.

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But what if you want to make an app?

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And the kid's parents might have done

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some of these things when they were young,

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but not many parents have written apps.
(Laughter)

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Where do you go to find out
how to make an app?

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Well, this is how I approached it.
This is what I did.

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First of all, I've been programming

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in multiple other programming languages
to get the basics down,

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such as Python, C, Java, etc.

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And then Apple released the iPhone,

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and with it, the iPhone
software development kit,

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and the software development kit
is a suite of tools

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for creating and programming
an iPhone app.

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This opened up a whole new world
of possibilities for me,

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and after playing with
the software development kit a little bit,

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I made a couple apps,
I made some test apps.

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One of them happened to be
Earth Fortune,

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and I was ready to put Earth Fortune
on the App Store,

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and so I persuaded my parents
to pay the 99 dollar fee

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to be able to put my apps
on the App Store.

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They agreed, and now I have
apps on the App Store.

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I've gotten a lot of interest
and encouragement

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from my family, friends, teachers

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and even people at the Apple Store,

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and that's been a huge help to me.

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I've gotten a lot
of inspiration from Steve Jobs,

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and I've started an app club at school,

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and a teacher at my school
is kindly sponsoring my app club.

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Any student at my school can come

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and learn how to design an app.

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This is so I can share
my experiences with others.

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There's these programs called
the iPad Pilot Program,

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and some districts have them.

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I'm fortunate enough to be part of one.

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A big challenge is,
how should the iPads be used,

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and what apps should we put on the iPads?

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So we're getting feedback
from teachers at the school

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to see what kind of apps they'd like.

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When we design the app and we sell it,

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it will be free to local
districts and other districts

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that we sell to,
all the money from that

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will go into the local ed foundations.

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These days, students usually
know a little bit more

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than teachers with the technology.
(Laughter)

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So - (Laughter) -

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sorry - (Laughter) -

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so this is a resource to teachers,

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and educators should recognize
this resource

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and make good use of it.

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I'd like to finish up by saying
what I'd like to do in the future.

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First of all, I'd like to create
more apps, more games.

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I'm working with a third party
company to make an app.

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I'd like to get into Android
programming and development,

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and I'd like to continue my app club,

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and find other ways for students

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to share knowledge with others.

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Thank you.
(Applause)