I dropped by CompUSA today to kill some time after an off-site meeting and saw they got in a new shipment of iSights. The price tag on the shelf was labeled: Manager’s Special - $79.99. “Whaaa?” I says to myself. These things go for $150 anywhere else so I look to see if it’s the older version, but it wasn’t. I snatch one up and go to pay for it but it rings up at $150.00. I tell the pregnant 17 year old at the cashier that it is labeled $79.99 so she goes back to the computer and eventually says that is the price for the old model. That’s all well and good and I’d even take the old model at that price but I knew for a fact there was no old model there and that they’ve been sold out of ANY model for a while now. I should have said that but instead gave her a blank stare - the equivalent of a verbal “nuh-uh” - and she finally called the manager. He knew the game as well as I did (from my job at Circuit City after college) and honored the price. So…

First Impression: This thing just looks great, not that I expected anything less from Apple, but the anodized aluminum looks rugged and makes me think it could withstand a few bumps and jostles on the road (if I had a powerbook). The connection to the mounting bracket is clean and integrates the firewire plug into the whole unit rather than a wire that hangs off one side, pulling the camera left or right like others I’ve considered.

Setup: I went through the box looking for drivers and other what-nots to install the thing. No discs. Nothing. Just a little manual showing how to set up the mounting hardware. I mounted it to my flat panel and just plugged it in. Voila! Instant video. I’ve been in the Windowfied world for so long that I forgot how easy it is to add peripherals to Macs. Impressive.

Video: Here’s the amazing part - the video looks as good as the video conferencing images we use at the hospital. Those units run in the thousands-of-dollars. Of course, I’m only testing it locally so we’ll see how it runs to Mike’s powerbook in Japan, but the lighting is amazing and it has the capability of hitting 30fps - much higher than any of the others I have looked at.

Conclusion: I can’t wait to use this and see how well it actually works. It’ll be good to see my bro, too. Next step is to get the parents set up on it so they can see what we’re up to. Maybe I should rethink that…

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