Transcript
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Coming up on iOS today, we're back with the second part of the App Store Awards. This time it's all about the games. Yes, the games that won the App Store Awards this year. Stay tuned.
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Podcasts you love from people you trust.
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This is twit. This is iOS Today, episode 784 with Rosemary Orchard and me, Micah Sargent. Recorded Tuesday, December 9th, 2025 for Thursday, January 8th, 2026. App Store Awards Games. Hello, and welcome to iOS Today. This is the show where we Talk all things iOS, iPadOS, WatchOS, HomePod, OS, send all the OS's that Apple has to offer. These are. This is the time where we give you your some advice on, you know, games to check out, apps to download, gadgets to buy, settings to change, and everything in between. So that you are making the most of those. Apple, I am one of your hosts. My name is Micah Sargent.
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And my name is Rosemary Orchard. And I'm here, Micah, and I'm ready to play.
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Let's play. Yes. So I will remind you all about the App Store Awards. Now, as I mentioned before, if this is, you know, if it's. It's been a while since at least a week since I reminded you last time, the App Store Awards are different from the awards that Apple hands out to at the Worldwide Developers Conference. At that conference, Apple is handing out awards to really kind of acknowledge, acknowledge the developers who are making use of Apple's technologies. And so those apps often are kind of clever uses of the technology that Apple provides, whereas the App Store Awards are a little bit more edit. Well, they are editorially chosen. They're chosen by the App Store team, and they are all about kind of standout apps and games that are, you know, maybe they use custom technologies. That's not the important part. The important part is that they're good. And so when it comes to this, Apple always does the apps and the games as two separate picks. And so that is why I first and foremost, or why we first and foremost covered the apps and now we're covering the games. So Apple breaks it down by device. And the first pick that Apple has chosen is. Is for the iPhone. The iPhone game of the year is Pokemon TCG Pocket. It's Pokemon the trading card game Pocket. It is essentially a digital version of the Pokemon trading card game. So each day you're able to open two booster packs and kind of create a collection. And in this, you can play against other people. So you actually are able to play with players in 150 countries and regions around the world. You use Your mobile device. You battle people with Pokemon cards anywhere around the world. And because of this, they. Because it's digital, there's also this kind of new immersive look to the cards. The illustrations have a sort of 3D design to them and so it's a little bit more kind of detailed in that way. It also lets you share some cards, which is a new thing. It lets you give one kind of rare card to an in game friend and then in doing so you can receive one in return. You can also trade cards just like you could in real per. In real. In real life. So certain cards can be traded with friends and you are able to kind of swap them around. And as always, you have these kind of display boards where you can show your collections. So this isn't just for ranked matches either. If you've never played this before, then there are some kind of casual games that you can play to kind of get used to it and understand it as you build it up from there. I think this is something that is ripe for people grumbling about. I'm sure given that it is, you know, it's not like the real thing. But I do like the idea that people can play with others around the world where they may not have been able to with the real cards that they have. Right. It's. It would have been a game that you play. Now I'm curious, Rosemary. I've never played a card based game ever like Yu Gi oh, Magic the Gathering, Pokemon. I've never. I don't know how Digimon. I don't know how any of it works. Have you ever played any of them? I'm just curious.