I’ve known Jim Rhoades for nearly 20 years now, we met while working at GMD Studios and clicked right off. Jim was my roommate for a couple of years and he played a key role in how I met my wife. Today, though, I sat down with him to talk about his software company, Crush Apps. Jim works like a fiend on his programming and his dedication shows in the output. Here is another spotlight on one of the people who make Orlando tick..
Name: Jim Rhoades
What is Crush Apps: Crush Apps creates high quality software for Apple devices like the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.
What are your products: I currently have two apps:
Scout Camera – a camera app with a nice variety of color and black and white image filters that you can see while taking photos, along with a choice of aspect ratios (4:3, 3:2, 1:1 and 16:9). It’s designed with a “what you see is what you get” mentality – in contrast to many other camera apps which have you take a photo, then crop and apply a filter later on.
The app also offers some advanced features like independent focus and exposure controls, full EXIF information – including optional geotagging of photos, and the ability to share photos through Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
Macworld UK reviewed Scout Camera recently, selecting it as a “Macworld Editor’s Choice” and calling it “liberating” by putting the focus on “what you are actually looking at rather than what you might see or salvage later.”
Paperless – a popular app for creating lists. It’s designed to be very flexible, so you can use it to store shopping lists, todo lists, notes for projects you’re working on, vacation plans – or anything else you’d want to make a list for. You can also sync lists between devices – which is nice if you own both an iPhone and iPad.
Paperless has received a great deal of praise, with many calling it “the best list app in the App Store”.
How long have you been in business: Crush Apps has been around for just over three years. I hope to make that many more.
Number of employees: Only one… just me. It’s a lot of work doing everything on my own (programming, graphic design, customer support and general business management), but I haven’t felt the need to expand the company so far.
How long have you been in Orlando: I’ve lived in Orlando just over 25 years now. (There were a few short months where my family and I lived in Ohio – but I don’t really count that. It seems like we never left.)
Favorite thing about Orlando: The variety of restaurants here… it’s not hard to find a quality restaurant for most nationalities of food
Favorite place in Central Florida: I love Thai food – and there are a number of great Thai restaurants here, but Royal Thai has been my favorite for years.
Are you having fun: I’m extremely lucky to have a job that I genuinely love – and I enjoy learning new things, so I’m having fun with that. When I’m not working, I’m usually having fun with the family exploring all there is to do in Florida.
Crush Apps: http://www.crushapps.com
Scout Camera: http://www.crushapps.com/scout/
Macworld review of Scout:: http://www.macworld.co.uk/ipad-iphone/reviews/?reviewid=3489533
PAPERLESS: http://www.crushapps.com/paperless/
