A short review, as I'm unable to actually get the Pyro 1394 Webcam working in order to comment on every aspect, but a warning for potential buyers, regardless.

For owners of iMac computers, having built-in "firewire" ports is nice. In theory, firewire devices are much faster than USB devices, making things like scanners, and web cams, more desirable in this format.

Enter one of only two store branded firewire web cams - the Pyro 1394, by ADS Technologies. Looks nice... a kind of smoke color, somewhat see-through, and has some weight to it, making it stable on your desktop. The outside box says that drivers are included for Windows and Mac, including the newer Mac OS X. Oh, not so.

Upon opening the box, there is a loose slip of paper inside telling buyers that the OS X driver is a "trial" driver. You must go to a third-party company's web site (IOXperts) in order to download the latest OS X driver. Upon doing so, you find the download... for a price. Yep, that's right, the OS X driver is NOT free. You can only download a trial driver that will only allow your camera to work for 30 minutes at a time. After that, it shuts off - oh, that is, unless you've purchased the "real" driver from them for $19.95. Once again kids, this is something that is not stated on the box - but on a slip of paper once you've bought it.

In my anger of wanting anything that might work with OS X (yes, this is rare I'm finding out), I still tried to install the trial driver - only to get error messages saying it could not install. So, I can't comment on the cam's image quality.

Needless to say, Pyro is back in it's box for the long drive back to the store. A HUGE "boo" goes out to ADS for telling folks on the box they get a driver, only to tell them they have to buy it after they open the unit. Buy a driver??...

Indeed NOT.





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