Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Well, when the TED people contacted me
the first thing they asked me was
where I got my interest in technology from.
At that time I didn't know how to answer them.
But then I started thinking
and I saw that it is something I was born with.
I don't know where it came from, where it emerged from
and I remember playing with my father's work computers when I was about 6 or 7 years old.
And what I heard most was, "Oh, put a game on so that he can play
on the computer", "Hey, stop touching that!", "Pedro, this is serious, it's not a toy"
An important point is that the computers he used were Macs
because he worked in photography.
But I did not give up, and time went by
and when I was about 8 or 9 years old I started
being interested in programming, and I don't know where I got that from either.
By then I was about 8, 9 years old and the children of my age
had other interests than mine,
football, figurines, video games, and what I liked was computers,
programming, making my own programs and investigating that,
everything related to computers.
And that's why I did not relate to the people of my age.
I would talk with adults, and you can imagine how my family felt concerned, right?
In addition, the hot topic of the moment was how much time children spent on computers,
mother had read a note that talked about how much time Bill Gates' daughter spent
in front of the computer and that she could only be 45 minutes at the computer.
And I thought, if Bill Gates' daughter may be only 45 minutes at the computer,
how long does that leave to me ? My life was going to be hell.
I was lucky that Steve Jobs did not make any statement as well, that's why I'm a fan of his.
And as... (Laughter)
and as in every family, I had a computer shared with everyone.
Then they did not let install the thousands of things I needed to program it.
Even so, I would insisted and install them.
I had to share the computer with everybody.
But one day in 2006, to my surprise, my mom gave me my first Apple device.
It was a first generation iPod Nano. At first I thought it was fantastic,
like all computers from Apple, but over time I got bored with it, as I could see that
the hardware could offer me much more than what the software showed
on the screen. Then I started to investigate how to record videos with that device, which was
a feature that I had already seen in a YouTube video, an iPod recording videos. Then I started to investigate
and I started to hack the device. (Laughter) And I still do that on the iPhone and iPod Touch.
And then my friends began to get their first iPods and iPhones and they
they liked the idea of having more features on their devices, and what I would do for my mates
became a service, because I could not give them the only thing that I had to sell.
So I started to earn a few bucks, and I'm still doing that
on the iPhones and the iPod Touch. All those who didn't care about me because
they didn't share my interests began to notice me, they understand what I actually did
and in the end we were talking the same language. I don't know if that's because they began to grow up
and became interested in technology or they heard that everybody was talking more and more
about technology; and as people talked about technology, iPhone and jailbreaks, I became a kind
of reference among my friends, they thought about me. And I began to earn a little money
with the jailbreaks, as I already told you; and I always wanted to buy the latest Apple devices
but my family didn't let me spend all that had
on that. To them, having a PC and a Mac was as irrational as having two microwave ovens,
side by side. I had to insist a lot so that they let me use the money as
I wanted and also so that they help me a little so I could buy them.
That was when my family understood that I did not spent all day on social networks, chatting
on MSN with others and that what I did on the computer and the Internet was useful.
And yes, I also use social networks and MSN, but I also use them for something useful.
I was then developing tools to help me to unlock more devices
faster and then I started to think about releasing those projects so that other
people could benefit from what I had done. Then the Quick2gPwner came out which
is the first program to easily unlock the iPod Touch 2G and QuickOiB,
that installed Linux on the iPhone, temporarily, for at that time that was a novelty
and people wanted to try it but were afraid to install it because that could ruin their device
forever. The funny thing is that project of Linux on the iPhone became
iDroid, which is the Google Android operating system running on the iPhone. Then with that,
the users of the program could try Linux and if they liked it, I would install it permanently
and they didn't risk installing it and ruining their device, that is "bricked." And these two tools
had many comments on the web and on some foreign sites like iSpazio, iPhoneItalia,
TheiPhoneWiki, iClarified, LinuxOnTheiPhone, AppleDiario and some others.
With these projects and tools that I created, some Brazilian blogs published articles
about me, my projects. And that's how someone from an iPhone development company
heard about me and called me to work with them.
I would have never imagined that this could happen. I was happy, but there was a problem;
on the web I claimed to be 14, to have a little more credibility and to be taken seriously;
but actually I was only 12 and in Brazil you can only work when you're 14.
However I visited the company a few times and I understood how a software company works and I really liked the experience.
So, what does this story come down to? I was given something that had a specific use,
I analyzed it and thought, "Why can't I do that with this?
When you're 13 and you look at the world in that way, you meet obstacles. So,
when will I be able to begin to think in this way? When I am 18, 30 or 50?
When I was 11, it was difficult to convince my family that I needed
to spend my money to buy an iPod Touch when for them I already had an excellent iPod Nano.
When I was 12, it was difficult to convince them that I needed to buy myself
an iPhone 3GS when I already had a 3G. At 13 it is not easy for me to convince them
I want to spend the money I have and they should give me a little help to buy
an iPad while having an iPhone and a Mac. Can you imagine what they think?
A USD 600 toy in the hands of a 13-year-old. Apparently, this will be difficult!
Thank you!
(Applause)
Alright.
(Applause)
Thank you.
Marconi Pereira: Well, first, we already have a row of iPhones here, including mine.
You're not going to go away here so fast boy, stay here.
Pedro Franceschi: Okay.
MP: Secondly, you've just received a proposal to make an application for TEDxSudeste.
PF: Yes, indeed. I'm still not finished, it lacks the GUI, but it will be ready soon.
I'm doing it, but I finish it soon. Would you like it to see?
MP: Of course.
PF: Wait a second, let me modify this.
MP: I do not understand a word he's saying.
PF: Wait a second.
MP: No, no, no. wait a moment, come here. Go back to the screen of the... password.
PF: No.
MP: Sorry, it is the fastest password of the West. No, no, here, I saw it. What is that?
PF: The application will appear on this screen, here I have no signal
MP: God, he is very fast!
PF: Here it is not working very well because I have no signal. And I have no signal
from the provider. But here there will be a map, here will be shown a planetarium, where are we,
TEDxSudeste and it will have -- now you can't see it because it has no GPS signal --
but there will be a blue dot indicating your location. And on the speakers tab there will be a list
of all the speakers who are present here today. If you click
on the name you will get a description of the speaker and here it will show an image.
In the video part you will see all the videos of the talks. Now it is not loading
so the videos are not online yet. Here it will load the news, they are not loading because
there is connection signal, but the application will take the information from the feed on the site
and it will show here, on the screen of the iPhone. That's it.
MP: By God! (Applause)
Do you know how to use Twitter?
(Laughter)
PF: Yes, I know.
MP: We'll talk later.
PF: OK.
MP: And we'll exchange ideas.
PF: OK.