App Store Best of 2020 Winners Begin Receiving Physical Award

[sideshowuniqueuser]

I wonder if they’re solid aluminum.

It’s a shame they don’t light up like the cubes they used to give out.

Agree with John Gruber’s take that it’s a little troubling that Apple awarded a game that’s such a cash extractor.

The game has generated $400m income in 2 months, which at 30%, is $120m to Apple. Of course Apple wants to grandstand it and make even more people aware of it. If you haven't worked out that all Captain Crook cares about is money, then you're slow on the uptake.

 

[Dustman]

I thought this was a Mac Mini, and now I really want one.

 

[brdeveloper]

It could be a custom blue Mac Mini with the App Store logo.

 

[the8thark]

Is it strange to say that I’ve never even heard of most of them until seeing it today?

Not really. It's just a "thanking Apple's left-wing mates" award.
Like must award ceremonies, quality of the content produced is totally ignored.

 

[nylonsteel]

the blue box reminds me of a giant blue mac mini
glad aapl didnt make a mac mini looking like that
my space grey mm is just fine as is

 

[ipedro]

With Apple awarding Zoom, App of the Year, acknowledging that it’s the most popular video calling app, above Apple’s own FaceTime, it really brings up a point: why hasn’t Apple acquired Zoom?

Apple really missed the pandemic boat with FaceTime. Now would’ve been the perfect time to make it cross platform. Maybe not as an app on Android/Windows, but at least online in the way Zoom (and Google Meet) works. iOS/Mac users could use the FaceTime app with more advanced features but also invite users from other platforms to attend the meeting on the web.

As it is now, even if 9 out of 10 people that are invited to a call have an iOS device and can do FaceTime, if just one of them doesn’t, the meeting has to happen on another platform. Apple failed to act on that, and FaceTime lost its chance while Zoom became a verb.

The only way to remedy this would be through an acquisition. Apple could keep Zoom a workplace and classroom app, while maintaining FaceTime for personal one on one and small group calls, and could borrow Zoom’s online infrastructure to enable PC and Android users to attend FaceTime calls.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

As it is now, even if 9 out of 10 people that are invited to a call have an iOS device and can do FaceTime, if just one of them doesn’t, the meeting has to happen on another platform. Apple failed to act on that, and FaceTime lost its chance while Zoom became a verb.

Had a family Zoom call earlier this year. On the call, realized everyone has an iPhone except one person, so set up a FaceTime the next time (the one person acquired an iPad). Everyone enjoyed the added quality much more and we all had more fun. Degrading to non-FaceTime is a choice

Zoom is Zoom and Apple doesn’t have to own it. They just have to make sure their hardware supports it in some way. It’s not about being number 1 in EVERYTHING, it’s about picking and choosing the things to be number 1 in such that they’re profitable.