Western Digital Puts the Heat on My Passport Studio

No matter how fast your laptop is, if you’re using an external storage device you’re going to have performance problems. Well, Western Digital is thinking they have the answer to that bottleneck.

Western Digital has recently announced that they are now including Firewire 800 interfaces on all of their My Passport Studio portable drives. That means Mac users with Firewire 800 ports on your laptops can now get some blazing speed out of your portable storage solution.

My Passport Studio also offers Firewire 400 as well as USB so that you can access the 500GB of storage space from almost every computer you use. As the unit gets its power via the Firewire of USB port there’s no need to worry about finding an extra power outlet to plug it in. That’s great news for those of us who are always on the go. Heavy duty photographers and film-makers will love the high-speed interface and the massive storage capacity all in a package that only weight 7 ounces.

The entire line of My Passport Studio drives feature:

• FireWire 800 interface, plus FireWire 400 and USB 2.0
• High-speed turbo drivers for maximum performance (Mac computer only);
• Illuminated capacity gauge lets users see at a glance how much space is available on the drive;
• Compatible with Apple's Time Machine application  so users can back up with Apple's Time Machine, or their favorite back up software;
• Industry-leading 5-year limited warranty;
• FireWire or USB powered, so no separate power supply is needed(1);
• Formatted HFS+, Journaled for use with Mac computers, can be easily reformatted for use with Windows PCs.

Select retailers are keeping stock on the 500GB version for $249.99 and the 400GB for $229.99. Apple Stores feature units with the Firewire 800 interface now.