Western Digital's already-attractive 2.5-inch external drives just got even prettier. The My Passport Studio has an e-paper display just like its predecessors, showing you how much capacity is left even when it's turned off. Despite its resemblance to a butane-fired hand warmer, we like its rounded stainless-steelish looks. It's aimed at Mac users, but don't worry, PC fans, a quick format makes it useful for you, too.

Speeding up the transfers is an old-timey FireWire 800 interface, as if anyone uses that any more. Hey Western Digital, where's the USB 3.0? Putting aside the issue of ancient versus future connectivity, we have a Verbatim InSight hard drive with an e-paper display, and adore its instant capacity info whether it's plugged in or not. All drives should have such niceties.

How much? Take your pick of capacities between 320GB, 500GB and 640GB, priced between $150 and $200. Too much. Now if the industry could just get over itself and price these things reasonably, the desirable notion of always-readable e-ink displays on external drives will soon become widespread.

Via Gizmodo