Collaborate, share and manage your own personal cloud with Western Digital mobile apps

The world has gone mobile, with always on connectivity and the widespread availability of smartphones and tablet devices allowing users to take their technology with them wherever they go. This mobile lifestyle encourages people to share and collaborate on the go, and Western Digital (WD) has stepped up to the plate with mobile apps that let users create their own personal cloud for accessing and sharing files on mobile devices.

WD 2go and WD Photos are the latest innovation from the storage experts, designed to fit in with users’ lifestyles and extend the application of WD storage devices beyond the desktop and into the cloud. Files are stored and backed up on WD devices, but are made available through the apps on tablets and smartphones, ensuring that should mobile devices be lost or stolen, photographs, music, files and more are not lost along with them.

“WD’s mobile apps extend the functionality of WD storage devices, using personal cloud storage facilities to put media and files in the palm of your hand, wherever you are in the world. This lets you share your music, movies, photographs and more, while keeping the files safe and secure, ensuring that memories are never lost,” says Anamika Budree, Western Digital Country Manager – South Africa.

WD Photos lets you access all of the photos stored on your WD drive on an iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch or Android smartphone device. Photographs are kept private, safe and secure on your home network drive. With WD Photos there is no need for a separate online photo service, and with a storage capacity of up to 285 000 photographs you can easily show off your entire photo collection without taking up space on your phone.

“With all of your photographs at your fingertips, you can instantly post to Facebook, create a slideshow with transitions, search images by filename, folder name or date, email pictures and add photographs to your camera roll for offline viewing,” says Budree.

Photographs are automatically optimised for viewing on your phone’s screen at the highest available resolution. A large cache is available for offline viewing, and photos can be displayed in both portrait and landscape modes. WD Photos is compatible with connected Apple devices and a variety of popular Android-based smartphones including Motorolla and HTC. WD Photos is available for use with My Book Live, My Book World Edition, My Book World Edition II and WD ShareSpace.

WD 2go is a free file viewer app which integrates seamlessly with Dropbox, allowing you to upload files from a mobile device to personal cloud storage and download files to smartphones and tablets for offline access. The app lets users access files stored on My Net N900 Central, My Book Live and My Book Live Duo personal cloud storage, and enables the management, backup and sharing of files between personal cloud storage and Dropbox.

“WD 2 go combines the benefits of personal and public cloud storage into one easy to use app. It empowers users with the flexibility and control of anytime, any-device management of growing libraries of digital content, and allows users to share files through Dropbox or a secure link, for ultimate sharing and collaboration,” says Budree.

WD 2go offers full access to Dropbox, with the ability to use all ED 2go file management features within Dropbox. Users can upload and download files, share files as email links or attachments, manage files in dropbox and send and receive files to and from third party apps installed on mobile devices using the ‘open with’ function. For added ease of use, auto-discover automatically connects to ED personal cloud storage devices on the same Wi-Fi network as your smartphone or tablet.

“WD is all about giving customers the storage they need with the access that they want. The mobile apps live up to this aim, supporting a growing demand for mobile content sharing and collaboration as a result of a new, connected and digital lifestyle,” Budree concludes.

WD mobile apps WD Photos and WD 2go are available as a free download from the iTunes store and the Android Market, and are compatible with selected WD drives.