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Western Digital Corp. subsidiary WD announced the latest version of My Passport line of portable hard drives for PC and Mac with the debut of My Passport Edge. The drives feature 500GB of storage and a USB 3.0 interface for improved read/write speeds, and a variety of security features to protect the drive’s content from unauthorized access.
The drives come with a three-year limited warranty and are available on the WD store and at select retailers. My Passport Edge retails for $109.99 and My Passport Edge for Mac lists for $119.00.
For Mac owners, the latest edition of My Passport Edge for Mac complements Apple’s MacBook and MacBook Air computer designs with an all-aluminum exterior to protect the drive and its contents. The Mac edition is also compatible with Apple Time Machine backup utility for seamless operation out-of-the-box with a user’s Mac computer. The PC version of the hard drive incorporates WD SmartWare continuous and automatic backup software to create a copy of users’ computer content to ensure personal digital files are backed up and protected in the event of computer loss or theft. My Passport Edge was also re-engineered with a new design for a premium finish.
On the security side, users can deploy WD Security to set password protection and hardware encryption and protect files from unauthorized use or access, while the company’s SmartWare automatic continuous backup software helps protect data using minimal PC resources. Whenever a user adds or changes a file, it is backed up, while the drive itself is built for durability, shock tolerance and long-term reliability. With WD Drive Utilities, users can register the drive, set drive timers, run diagnostics and more.
“WD’s new My Passport Edge portable drives for Mac and PC offer mobile users a safe, compact, attractive way to conveniently work or play anywhere life or business may take them,” Jim Welsh, executive vice president and general manager of WD’s branded products and consumer electronics groups, said in a prepared statement. “We know that people who bring personal and business content along with them on their travels are concerned with portability and with maintaining privacy while also protecting their data. We design all My Passport products with a small footprint and with security and protection in mind.”
The company’s latest announcement follows a busy first half of the year, when WD rolled out a slew of updates and new releases to its portable storage drives. In August, WD unveiled its My Book VelociRaptor Duo dual-drive storage system, supported by the Mac OS X operating system and aimed at creative professionals. The drive also provides a just a bunch of disks (JBOD) option for users running a Windows operating system on a Mac, and sports two 1TB 10,000rpm WD VelociRaptor drives along with two Thunderbolt ports, and comes with a Thunderbolt cable in the package.