Though my little G3 iBook had no other user applications running, and 256Kb of RAM (double the original amount), Iris essentially froze the computer, even though I made the video windows as small as possible, and requested lowest quality previews of only 5 frames a second. It didn't appear to work with Ecamm's iGlasses, but this was impossible to say because of the computer's duress: RAM was filled, and the disk was thrashing rather than paging (expending more on on setting up the pages than benefiting from them).

The G4 can process 12 bytes (I think) at a time, and is needed for some CPU intensive, graphical applications. This appears one such application. (Ecamm's Conference Recorder works wonderfully, though the movies are very small.)

Iris offered many cute filters. The ones of interest to me (which I hadn't time to check for) would have been very low light and infrared (which iGlasses could offer). This, in combination with motion detection, a snap, and e-mail (Growl I don't know about) made it initially attractive.