I asked for and received within about 5 minutes a review copy and key for this software, directly from Ken Westin, the founder of GadgetTrak. Impressive.

Installation is easy enough, the standard Mac .DMG file mounts and the install routine is run from there. Unlike me, I suggest your read the included README file as one or two of the screens have possibly ambiguous field requirements. Having said that, I emailed Ken about these and he's looking at possible changes.

A quick re-boot later and the software was up and running. It uses the in-built iSight camera on this Macbook Pro to grab images which it then uploads to your Flick account (you need to authorize access to your account as part of the install process), plus a note of other data inc. the external IP address. To test this, I accessed the MacTrak site (for which you need your user name, password and key from the installation section) and turned on the tracking software.

Every 30 minutes or so after that, I'd get an email showing IP address, wireless location via (I think) the Geo API that Mozilla uses (and a handy link to Google Maps) and a copy of the photograph snapped by the iSight cam.

The geo-location isn't always accurate - from my home location (which maps fine under Mozilla), the Google Maps location was at least 4 miles out. The work one however pinned it correctly.

I haven't yet had a chance to try and "break" the software (i.e. attempt to remove it as a would be thief would be likely to do) but that's next on the list.

Summary? Does what it says on the tin. A few rough edges that I'm sure the developers will smooth out and a useful piece of software that you could install to assist in the recovery after the loss or theft of your machine. There are alternatives of course, Adeona being a free one that springs to mind but this is reasonably priced and the company is responsive to suggested changes.