Talking Clock

Great idea, average execution. The introduction includes so much text that Orange Cherry looks like they're assuming kids aren't loading the program by themselves, because the amount of text is beyond the appreciation of the 5 to 8 year old target audience of the program.

Using the standard pull down menu interface is probably less appealing to the particularly younger players. Regardless of the interface, the program itself is fairly limited in its scope. You can change the hours, minutes and seconds from the 'Set Clock' menu, but only one at a time. As you change the time, the computer speaks it, in hours, minutes and seconds.

As kids become familiar with changing the hands on the clock, and the spoken times given, there's a quiz that can test their newfound knowledge.

And that's it. For the original asking price of $49.95 U.S. this program should have offered more. The program could have loaded faster, the speech is very average and the whole presentation isn't really appropriate for kids wanting to explore on their own.

Eventually, Orange Cherry would go on to create much better software.