You don’t have to tell us, we know HipServ is awesome, we created it. It’s so simple to backup all your data that was initially scattered over your computers and phones into one easily accessible place, to be consumed over DLNA, iTunes and even your mobile devices! We encourage this, you want your data to be easily accessible all the time. The problem comes a few days later when you decide to clean up your computer since, after all, you’ve saved all your files on your HipServ. Well, by deleting your original files on your PC, you just got rid of your redundant copy! Now you’re down to a single copy of your data again… where’s the backup?

So who am I, and why am I telling you it is important to always keep a second copy of your files? I’m the “Support Guy” here at Axentra, and I deal with this all the time! I hear: “I got a power surge, now all my precious baby photos are gone, help!” and “I accidentally deleted our wedding videos, how can I get them back?” too often. I’ve gotten mails from guys who are afraid for their lives fearing their wives will find out the ugly truth of the vanished photos and videos before the HipServ is restored. Your data is precious, protect it accordingly.

It’s really easy to do. Connect a USB drive to your HipServ and using our simple web interface, copy all your important data over to it. On some HipServ device models, you can even use the USB Backup feature. Configure the backup schedule and the rest is automatic.

Did you read this far? I hope you’re already in the process of backing up… or on your way out to buy a USB drive to connect to your HipServ device.

Don’t be fooled by the simplicity and convenience of storing all your data to your HipServ, ALWAYS make a backup!

Cheers,
Roby!

We just got two great gifts! Both related to Premium…and they are big.

First there is a money gift…and some more. Although enrollment has been very positive for us, yearly premium subscription renewals have been a sticky point within the HipServ community. In general, HipServ users would rather pay once and enjoy the benefits of the Premium Pack forever. That’s the feedback. So Santa heard you and now if you already subscribed to the Premium Pack or if you intend to buy it, from now on, it is activated for the life of your HipServ-powered NAS! And since good news never comes alone, we decided to slash the price by 50%. Now at $9.99 for life, it is a quick and easy treat that will certainly not break the bank!

We are starting to implement this Premium Pack change on the Netgear Stora right away and the other HipServ-powered NAS Premium Packs will follow in the next few weeks.

Second, as we promised when we launched the Premium Pack, we are regularly adding more features following users feedback and ideas. A few months ago we added Torrent support in the Stora Premium Pack for example. Today we are adding MySyncTM. This one is a big feature. Like Dropbox, it allows you to sync any files between your Windows and Mac PCs and your HipServ-Powered NAS in real time whether you are at home or on the road. You simply make sure your HipServ-powered NAS is updated to the latest version and then you download MySync for Mac and for Windows on your PCs. Upon first launch, you enter your HipServ credentials and check the “Remember password” option, MySync will create a “MySync – user” folder on your desktop and a MySync folder on your HipServ NAS under the “MyLibrary” media source. From then on, simply drag files and folders from your desktop to the “MySync” folder to sync content on as many computers as you want. It’s that simple! If you delete a file in your MySync folder on one of your computers or on your HipServ NAS, that file goes into a recycle bin on your HipServ NAS…just in case you did not really want to delete it.

You can also access all your sync content from your Android and iOS phones and tablets with our HipServ mobile apps (http://www.axentra.com/downloads). One cool thing I enjoy doing is taking a picture from my HipServ app on my iPhone from anywhere at home or on the road and let it appear in real time on my DLNA picture frames at home. That blows away the audience… I simply flag my MySync HipServ folder to “Share with DMA” and anything I add to that folder becomes available to all our DLNA devices at home AND is immediately copied and synced on my Windows and Mac PCs! Then I can edit the picture on my Mac directly and the resulting work of art is immediately synced back and available everywhere…and accessible from my HipServ NAS, PCs and HipServ mobile apps on my iPhone and tablet! Now that’s true portability, convenience and true backup all at once! You can also flag your HipServ MySync folder for backup to a connected USB drive if you have the Premium Pack with its USB backup app.

And it is secure too because ALL YOUR CONTENT IS ON YOUR NAS, not on somebody’s cloud infrastructure. It’s on your very “home” cloud and only you can get to it. When you hold your NAS in your hands, you hold your digital treasures in your hands, nobody else does, no big corporation, no hosting service, just you!

Oh, and there is another great plus, because your NAS is the cloud sync server, the amount of data you can sync is only limited by the size of your NAS’ hard drive…1, 2, 3, 4TB? You call the shots. Want more good news? There is no monthly fee. You buy HipServ Premium Pack for $9.99 for life and your can sync as much data as you want for as long as you want. And there is no hosting company playing tricky throttling so your bandwidth is so thin that real syncing is just a distant dream. And no ad will pop up in your face to sell you more space. It’s your disk, it’s your space, you’ve paid for it already when you bought your NAS!

So for those two big Premium Pack gifts, we are very grateful to Santa! And we hope you’ll jump on this new Pack because it simply makes a ton of good sense.

Santa left a few other goodies at Axentra today and we will be back with more exiting things for your HipServ-Powered NAS in the near future, so stay tuned!

Marc-Antoine Benglia,
CEO and Co-Founder

Today is one of those days.

This is the launch of our new website: simpler, easier to navigate and straight to the point. This simply means we will be in your face a lot more, and I can tell you that you will love it. We will interact on an ongoing basis with you, users and developers, but most of all, we will deliver more technology, more products and overall just more fun to your digital life.

Additionally, and now this is the toy box really opening, we are finally launching our Open HipServ initiative. What is Open HipServ? This is what the developers, the hobbyists and the users on blogs and forums have been asking for. It is an open API that allows you to develop, on your own or collectively, applications that interact with HipServ and its content. This will allow third party companies to add support for HipServ content into their applications so directly from within their apps, you will be able to store, retrieve and share your HipServ content.

I would like to take a moment to thank the Axentra Team for their efforts in putting this Open HipServ API together. They have been using it internally to develop our mobile client apps as well as our web interface , but from eating your own food to presenting it to your friends for them to enjoy…there is always a big gap. And the guys on our team have pulled it together nicely!

Now, what kind of apps will come out of this? Well, you guys will figure it out. It can be a mobile app to edit your photos that can target the thousands of pictures you store on your HipServ. It could be a sharing app, it could be anything you can think of that deals with your personal content and a computing or mobile platform.

And the good news is that this Open HipServ API works with all HipServ 2.0 and up versions on the market. So you can target all Verbatim, Netgear, Seagate, LaCie and Roxio HipServ home cloud media servers users out there at once!

You can write free apps and make them available everywhere and let us post them on our downloads page, or you can write targeted apps that you sell to HipServ users via the means you choose.

We also have an Open HipServ forum for all developers to communicate, exchange tips, help each other and collectively build more, better and faster.

Because at the end of the day it is all about the way you enjoy your media, what counts is what you want to do with it and the way you want to do it. So go ahead, the gates are now open. Impress us, and please us and make all of us HipServ junkies thrilled with more ways to enjoy our media!

Looking forward to hearing from you through the forum and the replies to this post.

Marc-Antoine Benglia,
CEO and Co-Founder

We also welcome comments and feedback that can help enhance Axentra’s products. In the next months, we will announce several new initiatives that will change or revolutionize how we consume and stream our videos, music and photos within the home and how we can socialize around our very own media with friends and family….with all the controls you ever wanted.

Today, HipServ is a solid leader in the home media cloud space allowing over 400,000 users worldwide (and a lot more adding up everyday) to consume their content securely at home and benefit from great and super easy remote access capabilities. Playing or sharing your content anywhere is now extremely easy as hundreds of thousands of HipServ users can attest. We also ensure protection with several ways to back-up your media so your precious family photos are never lost. I particularly enjoy using my Apple environment at home to play with HipServ! Whether we use our iTouch, iPhone and our new iPad2s…we can now access content that I have on my Seagate Goflex Home device and stream it to the TV via Apple TV. This feature is still in BETA, so that’s why I can enjoy it first But no worries, it is coming your way in just a few weeks! The kids and friends love to play their home made videos and music to the TV directly or access it remotely to play it on someone else’s TV.

In the months ahead, we will further enhance the experience of consuming our content easily, literally bringing all your personal media at your fingertips. The Axentra team is proud of what we have accomplished with HipServ and we collectively look ahead to release new products that will change how we play and socialize around our personal media content everywhere.

Stay tuned for more information here on various topics and of course we welcome any feedback from our HipServ community and also from avid home media users!

Eric Lefebvre,
EVP and Co-Founder