When the My Passport Ultra was introduced to me by name I was immediately interested as to why they would call it as such and then… the device finally arrived.
The packaging on its own is quite the looker having some parts in foil including the number representing its capacity. The overall color scheme of both the packaging and the unit itself has a silver/platinum feel going for it giving justice to its monicker – Ultra. The essence of which of course is in the software which we’ll get to later.
Now I can’t tell for certain because I no longer have the Passport Air with me but this one might just have the same thickness as that little beast. It most definitely is slimmer than its Passport predecessors of the same capacity.
This particular model also comes with its very own stringed pouch which will protect it from scratches should it find itself inside a jungle of wires and peripherals within a computer bag.
All in all it functions just like a regular external hard drive does; that is u you set out and install the native applications that can be found within the drive. A program called WD Smartware has now been expanded to Smartware Pro and allows for automated data mirroring to Dropbox. You might think of it as a RAID system using a cloud based twin.
The idea of migrating huge data sets into the cloud has its issues of course but having the comfort in the knowledge that no matter what happens all your data is being kept safe and ready on a remote place that is practically accessible anytime and anywhere there is a connection can be a powerful force that might just sway nonbelievers… of course it lies on the bearer of the Dropbox account to make sure that there is free space and that the limits to file sizes have been lifted for seamless automation.
Truly a remarkable step towards file protection and storage solutions.