Ontario Community Newspapers

Canadian Champion (Milton, ON), 15 Apr 2010, p. 20

The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

'!Milton whiz kid's iPhone app downloaded 2 million times Naveen Sidlhuý The Impossible Test yg gaine internatioaht Z Naveen Sidbu is tbe creative 2. developer and savvy businessman M bebind the world's most popular free iPbone app of tbe moment, The z Impossible Test. SHes also 18 and lives witb bis *parents. Tbe Milton teen staried bis own company, PixeICUBE Studios i(www.pixelcubestudios.com), and Z5created Tbe Impossible Test last 2summer. As of last Tbursday, it had been downloaded by more tban two 2million people. Tbe game consists of interactive grapbics witb random, bead- Ïscratcbing instructions. For exam- pIe, one question says to "toucb tbe genwtrdroplet" - but the only image on the sereen is most definite- ly t sky-bitte rato drop. Tbis causes some piavets t0 sbout out, "Tbere 15 no green water droplet!" (Hint: Stay caim, do notb- j ing, and you'l make it to tbe next question.) Sidhu originally charged $0.99 and tben $1.99 for the app, which. works on an iPhone or an iPod Tou cb, but decided to offer it free for a singie-day promotion on Marcb GRAHAM PAINE / CANADIAN CHAMPION POPULAR GAME: Naveen Sidhu shows his iPhone app The Impossible Test, which is gaining widespread popularity. 30. Wben 28,000 people took him Despite its nanie, the game isn't up on tbe offer, be decided t0 extend actuaîly impossible. "I can do the it. Now, Tbe Impossible Test is aver- whoie thing in 100 seconds, just aging 200,000 to 250,000 free under two minutes," Sidhu says. downîoads a day and for the past "But if it was your first lime pîaying nine days it's been the No. 1 free app ... it'd probabiy take you at ieast an downloaded worldwide. bour." Sidhu's budding career began after bie downloaded an app called Tbe Moron Test. "I got it, I played and I decided I could make a mucb better game than that," bie says. He taught bimseif bow 10 pro- gram with tbe few wnitten and video e We à1 IWEAÀiRAI mnime tutorials available at the time (bie bas since created bis own, whicb have been viewed 40,000 limes on Youlube). He created bis own graphies and tested the product on bis parents and two younger brothers. Tbey tbought it was too bard, so bie made it easier. His mom, Sukbpal Sidbu, tbougbt tbe game needed some cute little tbings" 10 make it appeal to botb genders. He adjusted. Tbe resuit was an interactive game you toucb, tap, sbake, swipe, tilt and sometimes stare blankly at. Tbe secret, Sidbu says, was bow bie worded tbe 65 questions or puz- zles. "Every question, I Write exact- ly wbat you're supiposed to do, but I write it in a way tbat people bave t0 tbink about it," bie says. 'If you tbink logically, ifs the easiest gamc ever." Even tbougb tbe app is free t0 download, users cao also buy $0.99 answer sbeets - but Sidbu won't say bow osocb bes msade. Sukbpal says ber eldest son gels straigbt As and bas "always been sbarp." "He's always doing these tbings on bis own." After Sidbu graduates from bigb scbool, bie bopes toi study computer engineering at the University of Waterloo, altbougb bie basn't received an acceptance letter yet. He also dreams of joining the mother ship. 'i want to work at Apple in California, but my mom, sbes against it," bie says. "She wants me to work iocaiiy and live locally I want to work ai Apple." - Torstar News Ser-vice (v1iiiie , Pia * 1,fagr idePln, akileCa l90 -78 23 1 x 1

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