Skip to main content

Western Digital raises portable My Passport drive capacity to 3TB, adds new colors

Western Digital has just given its My Passport series of portable hard drives a light refresh. The My Passport Ultra retains it form-factor and design, but now comes in four new colors. A more notable upgrade is that the drives are now available in 3TB versions. Also refreshed is the My Passport for Mac, which doesn’t come in new colors (it keeps the basic black as before), but has the 3TB option.

The USB 3.0 Ultra drives, available in Classic Black, Brilliant White, Wild Berry, and Noble Blue, come in 3TB, 2TB, and 1TB capacities. The My Passport Ultra, which is formatted for Windows (NTFS), also comes in a 500GB version (to use with a Mac, you can reformat them, and download the Mac software from WD’s website). Luke Ottrey, WD’s senior product marketing manager, tells us that it was feat in engineering, to squeeze a 3TB drive into a small body. Ottrey also points to the projection that users will take 3.3TB of photos by 2016, citing the need for more capacity.

Recommended Videos

Both the Ultra and Mac drives include 256-bit AES hardware encryption, to keep your files secured. You can set the drives to automatically unlock with known computers. While previous My Passport drives offered AES encryption (a more secured form than software-based encryption), WD tells us that they are going to promote this feature a lot more, moving forward. The My Passport Ultra also includes WD’s Backup software that is an easy, three-step process, similar in operation to Apple’s Time Machine (which lets you revisit backup points by date). My Passport for Mac users can just utilize Time Machine in OS X.

If you like a bit more personalization than the four colors offered, WD is introducing colored bumpers you can wrap around the Ultra drives. Available in Smoke, Slate, Grape, Sky, and Fuchsia, the $13 accessory, called WD Grip Pack, lets you create 20 different color combinations. What we like about the Grip Pack is that each comes with a matching 18-inch flat USB 3.0 cable. WD says the Grip bumpers also fit previous-generation Ultra drives. (Due to slight size differences, the Grips won’t fit the Mac version.)

An interesting note about the Wild Berry color option: WD hired a color consultant to help determine what colors to bring to market. After market research and surveys, it was determined that the “Marsala,” a purplish color, would be the color of 2015 for consumer electronics; Wild Berry is WD’s version of that hue. (Radiant Orchid was the color of 2014, according to WD.)

The Ultra and Mac drives are available now except the 3TB version, which arrives in June 2015. The 500GB, 1TB, 2TB, and 3TB drives will have an MSRP of $80, $100, $130, and $200, respectively.

Les Shu
Former Digital Trends Contributor
I am formerly a senior editor at Digital Trends. I bring with me more than a decade of tech and lifestyle journalism…
I have Meta Quest 3S and this is the best VR accessory yet — it’s on sale
Kiwi Design best VR accessory Meta Quest 3 headstrap

Ahead of the holidays and some prime family time, I've picked up the Meta Quest 3S. So far, my family is absolutely loving it, and my kids are constantly bugging me to play games, explore worlds, and get virtual. Naturally, I manage the time we're all spending -- you don't want too much screen time. But regardless, every one of us ends up becoming immersed, which means spending a lot of time with the headset on. One of the biggest drawbacks of the stock setup is that the headstrap is uncomfortable, and it puts a lot of pressure on your face. That means, the Meta Quest 3S's best VR accessory -- and the Meta Quest 3, too -- is a new, custom strap.

We grabbed the Kiwi Design Quest 3-Quest 3S headstrap and it's fantastic. It's also on sale right now for 20% off. Normally $30, it's discounted to $24 with a coupon code. Why am I sharing? If you pick up a Meta Quest 3 or 3S for yourself, or you're planning to gift one to someone over the holidays, I highly recommend ordering one of these straps. It vastly improves the experience and makes wearing the headset much more comfortable. It's also easy to adjust the fit, which is a big deal for kids. You have no idea how frustrating it was to constantly adjust the headstrap for my children between each turn.

Read more
Best early GPU Black Friday deals: Save on top graphics cards now
The Gigabyte RX 6750 GRE graphics card over a dark background.

Building a PC from scratch can be a lot of fun, and with the upcoming Black Friday on November 29, it's a perfect time for you to pick up hardware. One of the most fun bits of any build is picking the parts, and for that, graphics cards are probably the most fun to pick between. That said, GPUs also tend to be the most expensive pieces of hardware that go into a desktop, especially if you're trying to aim for something in the mid-to-high-end range that can easily reach $500 or even $1,000. That's why we've gone out and collected some of our favorite early Black Friday GPU deals for you below.
GIGABYTE NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 -- $290 $350 17% off

This RTX 3060 is a great starter card for those who want to be on a budget and will handle most slightly older games pretty well at 1080p and 60Hz, potentially up to 100. It may struggle a bit with newer titles without compromises, but that's fine given the reduced $290 price point.

Read more
Nvidia just scaled down DLSS 3, and that’s a good thing
The RTX 4080 Super graphics card sitting on a pink background.

Nvidia's signature tech, DLSS 3, just got yet another update -- and although it's subtle, it actually seems like a good thing for some of the best graphics cards. The latest version, 3.8.10, bundled with the GeForce 566.14 driver, doesn't seem to introduce any major changes, but Nvidia enthusiasts noticed that it's about half the size that it used to be. Where's that difference coming from?

No, Nvidia didn't downgrade DLSS 3 -- at least not in any major way. Although this hasn't been confirmed by Nvidia itself, it appears that the company removed a whole bunch of DLSS presets and replaced them with just two. These presets make it easier for gamers to choose the type of focus they want to apply to each game.

Read more