10,500 Objective Reviews, At Your Fingertips

Announcing A Better CTR Review Database

August 1, 2012, Flemington, NJ. Effective immediately, Children's Technology Review reviews will be easier to find, and they'll look better, too. The improved format includes an cleaner, easier-to-browse layout and one-click search scripts, making it possible to zoom in on the reviews you want. The database is available to only CTR subscribers.

Facts at a glance:

• 10,557 reviews (as of July 2012). Approximately 50 new reviews are added each month.
• More video reviews. YouTube's advertising program (where we don't choose the advertiser) has allowed us make more free video reviews available. We prefer this format, because you can see the products. We also like the ability to collect comments about products.
• The back story behind each product. CTR reviewers know the children's interactive space. They help you understand who made the product, and the publishing history behind each product.
• An improved layout, with more screen shots.
• One click search scripts. There are now 13 search scripts on the first screen, so you can click on a topic of interest to pull up the most recent reviews for the most commonly searched topics. In some cases these are the highest rated products; in other cases the are the most recent reviews.
• CTR Back issues. Click on a cover and download a PDF of over 60 back issues, including the current issue.
• Fine-tuned searching. You can search on what it teaches (subject), age, rating or platform using a detailed search screen. Let's say you want to find just the highest rated reading iPad apps for Kindergarten, released in the last 6 months. If you want to zoom in further, say, to find only letter recognition apps for kindergarten that run on iPad with higher ratings, you can tweak your search criteria and do the search.
• The ability to search inside the text of the review. This feature is great for researchers or designers looking for specific features, such as browser compatibility or game controller type.
• Text searching. Looking for a specific title or publisher? Just type in part of the title or publisher and let the database go to work.

The new format goes into effect today, and is available for current subscribers.

CTR takes no advertising or sponsorships. Like Consumer Reports (no affiliation), it is supported by subscriber fees. The cost for a one year subscription is $30 for 12 issues and one year of database access.

LINKS
Children's Technology Review homepage
Subscription form
Twitter feed (Twitter ID: @childtech)
Youtube channel

Below: A screen image from the CTR finder, followed by a video about how we review products.