Indeed. From the Get Info window —
Format: Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled)
Just as you surmised, although Pogue (p 262) left the "Case-sensitive" bit out of his note on the automatic reformatting of the drive. Pogue's parting comment in that note is: "Thoughtful, really."
Two minor addenda:
— When I went to WDC's website to acquire a user manual, I also noted that there was supposedly a firmware update for the drive. So I called WDC (30 days' worth of free telephone consultion included in purchase), who tried to convince me that it would improve the functioning of my drive ... until they found out that I was using Time Machine for backup, at which point they said that the update was unnecessary (ie, it wasn't really a firmware update but a software update for their SmartWare).
— Not included in the box was their software (which I wasn't planning on using anyway, for the same reasons MacManiac gave earlier) — either a mistake in packaging or it may have been on the drive itself before Time Machine took it over and erased everything on it prior to reformatting.
