WD My Passport for Mac 500GB Portable External Hard Drive Storage USB 3.0 (WDBLUZ5000ASL-NESN)

WD My Passport for Mac 500GB Portable External Hard Drive Storage USB 3.0 (WDBLUZ5000ASL-NESN)..

Grab Now WD My Passport for Mac 500GB Portable External Hard Drive Storage USB 3.0 (WDBLUZ5000ASL-NESN) By Western Digital

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604 of 614 people found the following review helpful.
You can use any external hard drive with your Mac....
By Chuck Bittner
TIP: YOU CAN USE ANY EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE WITH A MAC AND DON'T NEED A "MAC COMPATIBLE" DRIVE. Amazon has a few cheaper drives if you look around. Be sure to buy the biggest drive you can afford as at some point you will need/want it. Be sure to check your price of the different sizes some are so close as to justify the up charge in price. At the time of writing the 1TBb drive was only $5 more than the 500GB drive so that is a no brainer.

If you're a Mac user setting up or erasing this hard drive up with your computer is super easy follow these steps. I never use software that comes with hard drives I just wipe them & use Time Machine.

1. Plug in the hard drive
2. Open up disk utility found in your applications folder inside the utilities folder
3. Next select the newly plugged in a hard drive and on the right-hand side you should see partition click on that.
4. Then inside that screen on the partition layout drop-down choose how many partitions you'd like to set up. I generally go with one partition and just use folders to organize my files.
5. Then on the right-hand side you can name the partitions and select the format. If you want your hard drive to work with your Mac for doing Time Machine backups (which I highly recommend) choose Mac OS Extended. Sometimes it's good to make two partitions and one using "MS-DOS fat" if you might be transferring files to and from a Windows machine. The reason is Windows machines and Max can read and write to the "MS-DOS fat" format but your files will need to be under 4 GB each as that's the maximum file size it can hold.
6. Then click apply and your Mac will create all the partitions you wanted and you're good to go.

Thanks for reading it is helpful please click the button thanks.

142 of 146 people found the following review helpful.
A great portable drive for new Macs!
By maxmasa31
In ten years, I've owned at least five external hard drives from Western Digital and have never had a problem with any of them. They're reliable, well-made, and priced right. I've never had one die on me and the only reason I've owned so many is that they eventually can't hold enough of my media! To this day, I still use the first 60 GB drive I bought for twice this price!

The WD My Passport is a very compact, lightweight drive perfect for students or professionals. It's not much larger than a deck of standard playing cards and weighs just a bit more. It uses a USB 3.0 interface, which allows for faster file transfer speeds, but you'll need a computer with the right connection.

How can you tell? Basically, if your Mac was purchased before June 2012, it most likely has the slower USB 2.0 ports. All NEW Macs, however, have USB 3.0 ports. If you're not sure, another way to tell is if you look at your USB ports--if it's blue, you're good--if it's white, it's still USB 2.0. USB 3.0 is backwards compatible, though, so it'll still work on a USB 2.0 port; you just won't see the speed increase--it'll transfer at USB 2.0 speeds. Also, USB 3.0's theoretical speeds aren't as fast as Apple's ThunderBolt, but it's the cheaper option. Still, it's a huge speed difference over the older USB 2.0 standard. As an example, I transferred a 25 GB video file from my MacPro to the drive in under 5 minutes; my old USB 2.0 drive took 14.

If you're a Mac user, this drive comes formatted in HFS, so it'll work for your right out of the box, no problems. If you're a Windows user, you'll have to reformat it to NTFS (or just buy the regular WD drive, which is usually cheaper and comes formatted for Windows). If you're planning on going between the two platforms, however, you'll need to format it in exFAT using a Windows computer. An exFAT drive will work on any Mac OS running Snow Leopard (10.6.5 ) or later, but you'll need to install a driver for use on Linux. Another final option is to buy a third-party program, like Paragon for Mac, which allows users to write to NTFS volumes, or MacDrive for PC, which mounts HFS volumes.

All the technobabble aside, this is a standard 5400 rpm external hard drive that's great for shuttling around large files, and with the faster USB 3.0 speeds, is great for on-the-go editing of raw video footage in Final Cut on a Macbook Pro. For reliability, price, size, and convenience, it's an easy five stars!

56 of 56 people found the following review helpful.
Essential for the Retina Macbook Pro.
By Sledman
I've had the drive a few weeks and use it almost daily. I purchased a new Macbook Pro Retina and thought I could live with the 256 SSD drive in it. Turns out I was dead wrong. Even with streamlining my apps, not using it to store music and movies I still filled up the drive very quickly. I use this drive for everything, Dropbox,G-drive, movies, music etc. So far works great and the USB 3.0 is fast. Highly recommended. I do have a couple of notes:

1. This is the same as the standard 1T My Passport, only it comes pre-formated for mac (and has the "for mac" writing on it). You can buy and format the standard and it will be the same thing. I got this version because, I like the color and it was $15 cheaper at the time then the standard version and it saves me the 2 minutes of reformatting the drive.

2. It's very small and very light. I have an older My Passport and it's giant compared to this thing. The case is also plastic. Would have been nice to have aluminum for added protection but it seems sturdy. Also the aluminum and black will match your mac perfectly if thats what your going for.

3. After I received it and commuted for a bit I realized I probably should get a case for it. After looking online I decided on the Amazon Basics case. I can report it looks great, functions perfectly and adds the extra protection I was looking for so If I drop my bag I wont have to worry about the drive.

Again, If you need a great drive at a fair price then this is the one.

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Kensington Expert Mouse Optical USB Trackball for PC or Mac 64325

Kensington Expert Mouse Optical USB Trackball for PC or Mac 64325..

Special Price Kensington Expert Mouse Optical USB Trackball for PC or Mac 64325 By Kensington

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221 of 230 people found the following review helpful.
Buy Without Fear
By Platypus Rex
Almost every day I work for hours using a Computer Aided Design program, and over the years have found the Kensington Expert Trackball to be an indispensible labor (and arm) saving device. You get so much with so little movement! I was looking to buy a new one.
I had misgivings about this product after reading some "Worse than Bad" reviews that were in this forum. Still, either because hope springs eternal or a fool and his money are soon parted, I went ahead and ordered one.
Out of the box ball rotation was _The Worst_ as others had said. I had deadlines, however, so decided to use it to see if anything would improve. Two hours later it had "broken in".
Trackball Wizards, my number five is on the trophy shelf. The Seven is AAMMAAZZIINNGG. Totally silent movement; virtually frictionless rotation; excellent functionality, and it has GOT to have one of the most eloquent designs of any input device on the market.
As an added bonus the scroll ring beats any scroll wheel I have used, anywhere.
Congratulations to Kensington for creating a truly superior product.

92 of 98 people found the following review helpful.
Major improvements to a classic design
By Shelley Gammon
This is a superior alternative to the silver and blue USB model by Kensington with the awkwardly placed scrollwheel. Kensington brings back their award-winning classic design, adds a scroll wheel around the ball (programmable for lefties or righties!), a free attachable wristpad and all using optics - no more skin, hair and potato chip crumbs getting stuck in scroll wheels... it's all done using light.
My less than perfect rating is for the less-than-fluid turning of the scroll wheel. It sometimes feels like you're grinding coffee when you're turning it. Sometimes it's smooth like butter, other times, it seems to skip a little... and it's not due to debris, since it's been like this since I got it out of the box.
This is something Kensington needs to iron out in their next model.
Despite this one flaw, this is simply the best their is and there's a good reason why this mouse flies off the shelves at nearly 100 bucks a pop - it's because it's the best input device alternative to a mouse - ever - anywhere.
Do your wrist a favor and treat yourself to navigating in joy.

190 of 212 people found the following review helpful.
it had a lot of potential
By Nathan A. Sweet
I got this trackball because of wrist pains in my mouse hand. I will give my complete unbiased review here.

First, it is very pretty. The buttons are nice looking and easily clicked. The ball is a nice size.

The trackball comes with a wrist rest, however it is not comfortable if you use your fingertips to move the ball. In fact, the Kensington documentation states that your hand should "hover" when using your fingertips to move the ball. The reason is, when you move the ball towards you, your fingers have to bend and your wrist bends upwards. In order to keep your wrist straight, you have to hover your palm over the wrist rest. So why did they include a wrist rest?

The only other configuration possible is to rest the blade of your hand, pinky side down, on the wrist rest and use your thumb to move the ball. This position feels good, however I found I am much less accurate with my thumb. Also if you have any thumb pain, this position is not feasible.

The scroll ring is a very nice feature. However, as everyone else has found, it sounds like it has sand in it when rotated. I took it apart and lubed it with a plastic safe grease. Even though I worked the grease into the mechanism, the plastic bearings still make the grinding sound while saturated in grease. I can't get to them to see if they can be replaced without breaking the plastic, which has been melted closed.

The ball was stiff out of the box. The ball sits on three very tiny red balls, which act as bearings. Remove the ball and put a small dab of grease on these bearings, replace the ball and spin it, then remove the ball and clean it. Clean up all the lube from the bearings so they don't get the ball greasy. Then ball is then VERY smooth, with none of the "static friction" that is mentioned in other reviews. The grease to use is Radio Shack Multi-Purpose Lube Gel item #64-2326. Any plastic safe, non-evaporating lube should work.

I imagine after a few hours of use the ball would also become "broken in" and loose, but probably still not as good as with the lube.

After two days of use, two of the three small plastic cups that hold the little red ball bearings for the main ball broke. It seems the only way for this to happen would be if I dropped the ball in the socket very hard, which I did NOT do. The little cups do seem that the are easily broken, though I have not read anyone else having this same problem, so it could be an isolated incident. I have contacted Kensington for a replacement. I hope they can help. If I can keep my broken trackball, I will take apart the scroll ring bearings and see if it can be improved.

The drivers for the device are superb, although the user interface is sometimes awkward. You can set actions for each of the four buttons or when you press the top two or bottom two at the same time. Further, you can have it do different actions when any of those buttons are pressed with ctrl, alt, shift, or any combination of the three.

The actions you can take are extensive. You can run an application, simulate a series of key presses, paste some text, close applications, show a customizable menu, maximize windows, etc. Good job Kensington!

The acceleration settings are very important. The trackball has to be accurate for small movements, yet you shouldn't have to paw at the thing to move the cursor across the whole screen. This cannot be accomplished using any combination of the "fine tuning" controls the driver provides. The acceleration curve they allow you to create is much too linear.

Fortunately there is still hope. On Windows, in your user's home directory, look in Application Data\Kensington\MouseWorks. You will find a KMW_Preferences.xml file. Edit this file with a text editor and you can define your own acceleration curve. To do so, under "Acceleration" set the "Level" to 1, then modify the numbers of the first "Multipliers" entry. I found 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 13, 20, 26, 36, 90, 90 to work exactly like I want. After editing and saving the file, run the kmw_prb_xml.exe file in your MouseWorks installation directory. This will causes your changes to the XML file to be applied. Then if you go to the acceleration page in the driver, you will see your custom acceleration curve on their little graph!

With my custom acceleration curve I can accurately make small movements for clicking links, menu items, and expanding folders while navigating a filesystem. Also, I can travel the whole screen height with just one movement of the trackball. Perfect! Kudos to Kensington for allowing the preferences file to be customized so easily and for providing such great options for configuring the button presses.

The device had a lot of potential. If Kensington would make the scroll ring silky smooth and make the little red ball bearings more durable, the product would be amazing. As it is now, the scroll ring is cheap feeling and annoying, but it is a great feature to have. A scratchy scroll ring is better than none and it can be lived with.

The durability of the bearings is still a question I have. I hope to find a positive response from Kensington regarding my replacement inquiry and hopefully the next one I get won't break.

The only other negative aspect is the wrist rest is useless for 80%+ of people who will use the trackball with their fingertips. In fact it is better to not attach the rest because you will find yourself using it, putting your wrist in a bent position.

It would be great to have a trackball that could be used with the fingertips and had a rest for the wrist. To see what I mean, detach the wrist rest that comes with the Expert Mouse. Put a book under the rest and use it that way. Pretty comfy huh?

In all, it is a good device. If my suggestions are fixed in the next version, it would be a KILLER device. Granted, I don't think there is another trackball as good as this one, but that doesn't mean this one should not be improved. As is, it is a bit overpriced. The ball, buttons, and plastics are nice, but the scroll ring and bearings don't have the quality of a $100 device. A more realistic price would be $45-$50. I see it can currently be found for $60 from Amazon after a mail in rebate, so that is an ok buy.

Please Kensington, please fix the problems above and provide us with the BEST mouse replacement the world has ever seen!

UPDATE: I sent Kensington an email regarding my broken trackball and 90 minutes later they responded and have shipped me a new trackball. Now that is great service!

I took apart my broken trackball and inspected the bearings for the scroll ring. It uses rubber rollers on one side and tiny white plastic ball bearings for the other side. The rollers don't make any noise, the problem is the plastic bearings rub against plastic and metal. Greasing it does not help. The design is flawed and there is no way possible to fix the scroll ring so it rotates smoothly. Another reviewer mentioned that taking out the magnet helps. I don't recommend this as it does not reduce the noise and makes the ring rotate too easily (possibly on accident).

So Kensington has something to improve on, though even with its noise, I am glad to have it.

UPDATE: Unfortunately the MouseWorks software doesn't work on Windows 7. I have heard it also doesn't work with Vista. There are rumors it will work if it can be run in compatibility mode, but this only works for 32-bit Windows. 64-bit definitely does not work, and there is no workaround.

The trackball still works, you are just unable to change what the 4 buttons do and you have little control over the mouse acceleration.

I contacted Kensington about this and they suggested I sign up to beta new Kensington trackball software that will work on Windows 7. I did so, but apparently the software is not ready for the public to beta. As of 5/2010, it is unknown when the beta will begin.

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Logitech Wireless Anywhere Mouse MX for PC and Mac

Logitech Wireless Anywhere Mouse MX for PC and Mac..

GET Logitech Wireless Anywhere Mouse MX for PC and Mac By Logitech

Most helpful customer reviews

97 of 104 people found the following review helpful.
2nd yr, 2nd Anywhere MX mouse failure.
By Leland Chew
Like the other users experience that over a short period of time down the line, the mouse will be making phantom double clicks which can result in some unexpected consequences. In Excel, it's opening up opening up formulas that it should not. In email it's sending messages before I intend. You drag & drop files to unintended/unwanted folders. The Logitech Anywhere MX mouse has become a business liability to me. I've called Logitech for a 2nd time in as many years. They won't acknowledge a widely documented issue as a design flaw. They offered to send another replacement once I send in my 2 bad devices. But instead I opted for another unifying laser mouse. Hopefully it won't become a liability too. I'm finding out that indeed the lowly computer mouse needs to be a finely tuned, accurate & reliable device.

140 of 160 people found the following review helpful.
Logitech Took 2 Steps Back - Comparing Old and New Versions
By Miguel C. Rodriguez
I uploaded some photos with notes comparing the Old and New versions of this mouse.
Just click the photos to view them all.

I will let the other reviewers speak on the details about this mouse in full.
This review is about how the New shiny/glossy body style is completely different from the Older version.
It is the only thing that has changed in my opinion.

Reason for Docking 1st Star - Gloss:
The Old version did not have a glossy or rubberized coating that wears off with use. Its plastic had this dull, yet high-grade, feeling to the touch that allowed your skin to breath for extended use without sweating.
The New version uses this plastic that is so smooth it looks nice, but in use it leads to sweaty hands and a very cheap feel. It's very smudge prone and kinda gross if you share it with someone who has sweaty hands.

Reason for Docking 2nd Star - Price:
When you make something better, you can justify the increase to the price.
When you make something lower-quality, you can sell it at a cheaper price.
Make something lower-quality and add to the cost? = Fail.
The New version currently costs almost $10 more.

Packaging:
So where is the justification in the price hike?
To offset the cost of retail packaging I guess, because it wasn't used to make the product better.
The retail packaging on this thing was ridiculous because it included a bunch of thick high-grade plastic to hold the mouse and receiver to give it a "pop-out" effect inside the package.
What a waste of materials and money that goes straight into the trash.

Even the case that comes with it is made of slightly different materials compared to the Old Version.
This results in a pouch that, again, is cool, but when you compare it to the Old version you can tell the materials are inferior here too.

I'm lazy and don't like returning things, so I gave the mouse to my sister and ordered the Old Version.
Buy them up while you still can. Everyone uses them around my office because it is a superior mouse.

Update - 10/21/2012

I noticed they changed the names of these two mice.
I looked back at my previous Amazon email confirmations and found that:
"Logitech Wireless Anywhere Mouse MX - Old Version"
is now called "Logitech Wireless Anywhere Mouse MX - Matte Black".
"Logitech Wireless Anywhere Mouse MX for PC and Mac (910-002896) - New Version"
is now called "Logitech Wireless Anywhere Mouse MX for PC and Mac (910-002896) - Gloss Black".

The price has also fluctuated and now the Newer model is cheaper than the Older one (most likely due to the older one's stock getting closer to selling out).
I have purchased another Older one to keep as a back up before I can no longer get one (I go through mice pretty fast because I'm a heavy user).

Due to the change in name and price I have added back the 2 stars I originally docked.
Now the user knows exactly what they are getting. Thank you Amazon/Logitech.

38 of 42 people found the following review helpful.
Logitech Wireless Anywhere Mouse MX
By D. Bannister
For the last year I have been using the Microsoft Touch Mouse. I enjoyed it very much however it began to have issues lately so I thought it was time for a change. I liked the mouse but would not re-buy it. Gestures were fine but, for me, basic buttons work best. So I discounted the both the Logitech Touch and Pad devices. Instead I went with the Logitech Anywhere Mouse MX.

The Pros:
1. Ergonomically it is very nice. It is a medium-sized mouse and fits in the hand very well.
2. Good weight. You know you have something in your hand but it doesn't weigh you down.
3. Moves very nicely on all surfaces. There are four pads on the bottom which facilitate easy movement.
4. Reception from computer to mouse is very good and there is no lag or skipping.
5. The Application Switch button works very well. One push and all the applications open on the screen find an empty space and you can select a new open application. It works very well. Much better than the four finger gesture required by the Microsoft Touch mouse.
6. Left and Right button play. The click is noticeable but the button travel to click is near perfect. As it should be because Logitech has been in this business a long time.
7. Tracking is good (some issues - described below) and the SetPoint software let's you customize the mouse to an acceptable extent.

Could be better:
1. I find gross tracking is very good. However fine tracking i.e. placing the cursor exactly can be fiddly. For some reason I have also found this to vary from application to application. Google Chrome is especially fiddly.
2. The scroll wheel: When you use it normally I have noticed what I can only describe is a jump up at the end of the scroll. It is like after the final click the scroll wheel says - 'no I'm not stopping quite yet. Just a half click further. There!' Again it is inconsistent and depends upon the application.

When you press down on the scroll wheel and click it you get the smooth scroll which is very quick and very jumpy. It is useful for long web pages but I do not keep the track wheel on this setting as a default.

Overall I am pretty pleased with the Logitech Anywhere Mouse MX and would recommend it for purchase.

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