Looking for a summer job?
Chris Mays has an app for that.
Actually, he has quite a few.
Mays, a rising Alleghany High School senior and the founder of Purulent Software (http://purulentsoftware.com/index.php), has been writing and developing apps for the iPhone and iPad for the last two years.
“It’s better than flipping burgers,” he said with a smile.
Mays has four apps currently available for download in the Apple App Store. The apps are available for free and Mays sees revenues from businesses that place advertisements with his apps.
“I’ve made about $3,000 so far,” he said.
His most popular app is a hidden camera.
“It’s a camera that has a web browser over top of it. You hit a button and it takes a picture. But that way you can take a picture without someone seeing that you’re taking a picture,” Mays explained.
His other apps are designed to keep track of lap times, apps purchased through the App Store and statistics for the popular Xbox 360 game Halo 3.
Those four apps are just the tip of the iceberg for Purulent Software.
“I’ve made about 15 so far,” Mays said. “Some of them just aren’t good enough yet for the app store.”
After reading nearly a dozen books and spending two years working toward perfecting his craft, the young programmer is still building his catalog of apps.
“It was kind of a hobby, but right now it’s my job since I’m not working anywhere else,” he said.
It takes Mays about a week to use a compiler to create the code that runs the programs for his apps.
“It depends on how complicated it is,” he said. “If it’s a small app, it could take a week or two. I haven’t done anything huge yet.”
“Huge” for Mays would be a three dimensional video game.
“I’ve looked into making games, but I don’t really have any artwork skills, so it probably wouldn’t be worth it. Those have to look pretty nice,” Mays said.
Once Mays perfects his apps, it’s just a matter of uploading them to the app store so that the general public can download them.
The next app on the drawing board is geared toward making navigation through digital music libraries easier.
“It’s designed so you don’t have to find the buttons,” Mays said. “All you’ll have to do is swipe your finger.”
Mays isn’t limiting himself to just making apps. He’s also working on developing a new website for the Covington Lumberjacks, which is just another outpouring of the entrepreneurial spirit that has certainly been an asset in the classroom.
“He brings a lot of real world experience,” said Mick Strand, who teaches Marketing classes at Jackson River Technical Center. “Anytime that we can bring real-world things to the classroom is helpful.”
That experience has come in handy for Mays in his marketing classes at JRTC.
“It hasn’t made it harder,” he said. “I feel like I know a lot more about marketing. I’m going to be taking two more marketing classes and then I’ll have them all.”
With those two classes under his belt, Mays will have taken every marketing class that JRTC has to offer.
“He’s quite the student,” said Strand. “He asks the questions that most students don’t.”
He has also gained a head start on a future career before he’s even graduated from high school.
“I want to do something with computers,” Mays said. “I just don’t know what yet.”
To find apps designed by Chris Mays, search for Purulent Software in the Apple App Store.
Source: Virginian Review, Saturday June 25, 2011