Apex Moving Into Computers
from the watch-out-from-below dept
I have an Apex DVD player that I bought years ago, and is the only DVD player I've ever owned. It's been great - and it had a very cool feature very early on: the ability to play a CD full of MP3s. Other DVD players eventually offered that as well, but Apex was one of the first. Now, comes the news that Apex is moving into the computer business, and are getting ready to launch a fairly inexpensive "entertainment PC" as well as a DVD player that plays computer games. While they're mostly known as a low cost supplier who puts pricing pressure on other companies, it's much more interesting to see how they've been adding different features to their products. To be honest, other than owning that DVD player, I didn't know much about the company, but it sounds like they're really trying to come up with cool and useful features to add to machines. It also sounds like they're doing quite well in sales. Funny about that: a company that tries to add useful features while keeping prices low - and it's doing well. What will they think of next? Still, it sounds like plenty of other companies in the computer space could learn a thing or two from Apex - rather than just churning out clone boxes that have nothing to differentiate themselves. Who knows if they'll be at all successful in the PC business (it's a tough business, after all), but at least they're trying by working on features they think people will want.
Reader Comments (rss)
(Flattened / Threaded)
Apex sucks ass
Apex is the Yugo of the entertainment field.
I bought one of the first Apex DVD players.
Bogus machine.
Apex sticks a DVD computer drive into a fancy case and calls it a DVD player.
Thing skips, locks up & does more to ruin my entertainment than a Tijuana whore with buck teeth & a lisp.
Returned 2x ...
Gave up and bought a real DVD player manufactured by a real DVD company.
I can just imagine what a thrill an Apex computer would be.
(reply to this comment) (link to this comment)
Apex likes hackers
Apex was one of the first widely available DVD players with "hacker-friendly" features, including a hidden menu that could disable macrovision encoding, region restrictions, etc. The firmware in the players is also easily upgradable, I downloaded a couple of files, burned a CD-R, put it in the drive and turned the machine on... waited 10 minutes and voila, all sorts of new features and I no longer have to go through tortuous series of remote key presses to get to the hidden menus.
I bought the 3-disc changer, a model 503 as I recall, and it has DVD-Karaoke, MP3 playback, and has played just about every kind of burnable DVD or CD I've put in it.
I bought my Apex at least 5 years ago and it's still going strong.
(reply to this comment) (link to this comment)
Apex DVD Player
Yeah, mom and dad bought one for the kitchen for 29 bucks at Sears just before Christmas. It's been great. We were watching Flash Gordon and singing Queen Lyrics over our Spaghetti last night. It's been a great plus to find such an inexpensive gift for the whole family, and it even plays DVDs that are scratched and beat up better than the PS/2.
(reply to this comment) (link to this comment)
Add Your Comment