The PlayStation has spent a good year in the market and has topped sales charts wordwide. According to Sony, 18.5 million units have been sold and it is still going strong. 2015 is set to be another phenomenal year for Sony’s Beast from the East. The PS4 is a worthy upgrade to the PS3 and for good reason.
There are a lot of awesome things that the PS4 can do that we were unable to do on the PS3. We are excited to reveal some secrets that not all fans may know of.
1. Rest Mode Features
When the system is on rest mode, it saves power but also allows you to charge your controllers and download games without keeping your television on. This is very effective for those who download games overnight or have slow connections. The games are automatically downloaded and installed.
2. Play as You Download
Imagine downloading a 20 gig game on the PS3. You would have to wait for hours to finish downloading before you can install and play. On the PS4, things work a bit differently. For those who do not know, the ‘Play as You Download’ feature allows you to download a portion of the game which is usually four or five gigs depending on the total size. Once that is downloaded and installed, you can play the game. However, not all sections are open for you and they download while you are either playing the same game or doing anything else on the PS4. In order to see progress of the ‘Play as You Download’ feature, press the option button on the Dual Shock 4 and it press ‘Information’. You will see how much of the game is left and can estimate the time it will finish the download. Once it is done, the information screen will show ‘Completed’.
3. Turning on PS4 Remotely
You can set up the PS4 to turn on remotely via the PlayStation App or when you want to download purchased games off the PlayStation Store. You will have to enable that in settings. You can use certain Xperia phones as well as your PS Vita for powering up the system remotely. You will have to use the devices to wake the system up when it is in Rest Mode. Even though the PS3 had the ability to wake up and download games and do updates etc, but it would only be limited to that. This feature has been further expanded on the PS4.
4. Remote Play
Imagine your television is occupied by your family and you want to play FIFA 15 or Call of Duty, you would have to wait till the TV is free. It is possible to play PS4 games remotely if you own the PS Vita and certain Xperia handsets. Most titles allow remote play and you can enjoy all the action on the small screen without any disturbance.
5. Virtual Keyboard
Another handy use of the PS4 is the ability to have your smartphone act as a keyboard. Via the PlayStation App, you can use the keyboard functionality as long as the handset and the console are on the same wireless connection. This way you don’t have to use the Dual Shock 4, and can simply type via your phone. This is one feature that would have been handy on the PS3.