I was really excited when I heard Chris say that they had fixed cube of Force finally. I was excited to see how they managed to simplify it and keep it's unique flavor and usage. Turns out they didn't. It's now an almost completely flavorless item that does nothing interesting anymore. Now it casts shield and puts up a wall of force. I assume there's a rule saying that activating a spell takes the action stated the spell needs unless the item says otherwise. Sorry but this fix feels so lazy. We already have enspelled items. Do we need all items to just cast spells? Is that the "fix"?

What favorless downgrade from the original.

I respectfully disagree... This is much better. Great fix.
My character has the old version of the cube of force, and it comes in handy sometimes, but most of the time, I'm like, "What am I supposed to do with this?"
Being able to cast wall of force is powerful, cool, and more universally useful. This "fix" of the cube is especially good for new or more casual players—established spell effects are easier to wrap one's head around than the function of the previous version.

Quote from Sage25 >>

I was really excited when I heard Chris say that they had fixed cube of Force finally. I was excited to see how they managed to simplify it and keep it's unique flavor and usage. Turns out they didn't. It's now an almost completely flavorless item that does nothing interesting anymore. Now it casts shield and puts up a wall of force. I assume there's a rule saying that activating a spell takes the action stated the spell needs unless the item says otherwise. Sorry but this fix feels so lazy. We already have enspelled items. Do we need all items to just cast spells? Is that the "fix"?

 I completely agree, it just feels like a staff or wand at this point. Just a spell wand that doesn't even have any other special properties. Doesn't fit a cube projecting force at all.

It is a cube that literally projects forcefields, armor composed of force, bubbles of force, domes of force, and walls of force that can be flat planes of force, domes, or spheres of force...  The "Flavor" everyone misses is the nonsense involved with artificially extending the number of charges by having "nonliving" material be banned from their box so when melee attackers approached they had to nude up in order to get in or they crashed against their own breastplates and codpieces.  What does "selective semipermeability" have to do with "Force."

If they had foreseen the kind of complaints I'm reading here they could have added a line that the spells work as described however all appear has cubes, but that doesn't make any sense because all these effects except Tiny Hut are invisible anyway...  Flavor is free.  Make no mistake, I do not like paying for errata, but I'm more than glad to have rules that work without a 10 minute discussion at the table.