Quick Menu
First things first, the latest firmware update makes quite a noticeable change to the PS4’s quick menu. Not only does it look sleeker and take up less space on your screen, it also brings with it a bunch of new features and options to allow you to get to the things you want that little bit faster.
The most significant addition is the Music option, allowing users to control the Spotify or PlayStation Music apps without having to exit their games and boot up the apps. What’s more, selecting a playlist will then bring up the current queue of songs, allowing you to pick and choose from the current selection.
A couple of other new additions include Online Friends which, as the name suggests, shows your current online friends, and an Online Status option so you can quickly change this on the fly while you’re playing a game.
The Information Screen
Before update 4.0 was released, hitting down on one of your current games on the PS4’s home screen would bring up an Overview, Activities, Related Items which was a bit slow and a little bit of a pain to navigate your way through. Bits of DLC could appear under a few of these different headings, and the whole thing just didn’t work all that well.
Thanks to the Shingen update, heading down to this content information screen will show a cleaner and easier to use version of the former feature. The overview now shows your current trophy progress on a particular game, as well as providing a list of the latest bits of DLC that you may be interested in. Trending gives you a run down of how many people are currently streaming, the number of video clips, and screenshots that have been taken in the game and allows you to browse them at your own leisure. Activities gives a list of your recent progress or trophy unlocks in the game, and finally, the PlayStation Store gives you a full list of any available content you may not already own that’s on offer.
HDR
Next up is one of the more impressive additions and one which will have a direct effect on the way some of us experience our games on PS4. As promised last week, the 4.0 update for PS4 brings with it HDR support. This essentially means that the PS4 can now output with a higher dynamic range, and display a far, far, larger range of shades of colors.
In short, this means that the colors on your screen will look more like their real-life counterparts. In bright environments, colors will pop with a little more vibrancy, and in dark scenes, you’ll get more detail which is usually lost on normal displays without HDR. While this will be available on all PS4 systems, including existing ones, it’s important to remember that this will only make a difference if you’ve got a TV with HDR technology. If you do, check out our guide on how to enable this new setting.
What’s New
The What’s New section has come a long way since its conception at the start of the PS4’s life cycle. From its very basic look above, this means of keeping up with your friends’ gaming achievements and activities has been built upon, allowing for you to get more details on exactly what they’ve been doing and when.
Most noticeably, the What’s New area has now been split in two. Players will find all of the information about people on their friends list on the left, and then on the right is information on Now Playing, Trending, New to PlayStation, and Who to Follow.
Trophy Changes
Trophies have been a big part of the PlayStation ecosystem for many players for quite some time. Not only do the virtual collectibles act as a checklist of sorts to allow you to check up on your progress in a game, but they also act as a means of comparing your gaming achievements to those of your friends.
Update 4.0 hasn’t changed all that much with the trophies area of the PS4, however, one thing will certainly come in handy for those trophy hunters out there. Now when you check your trophy lists you are able to reveal the information and description of hidden trophies making it easier to get that all-important platinum. What’s more, the four dots representing the rarity of trophies has now been replaced with a simpler triangle hierarchy, with each higher level representing a rarer trophy within the community.
Preparation for Pro
Update 4.0 also patches in a bunch of options ready in time for the PS4 Pro to make use of when it releases on Nov. 10. With the additional horsepower of the Pro bringing 4K gaming, increased framerate and prettier textures, it will also see an improvement in the quality of streaming and broadcasting.
The latest update allows 1080p streaming for Remote Play on PC/Mac and Sony’s Xperia devices, as well as Share Play, 1080p 30/60fps live broadcasting on YouTube with an option to shift between the two fps options, and 1080p/30fps live broadcasting on Twitch. While this isn’t going to come in handy for everyone, it’s important to see these features already baked into the current firmware for when the Pro releases.
Data Transfer
With the release of the PS4 Slim this week and the upcoming PS4 Pro in November, Sony has made it easy for users to switch all of their data from their current systems to their shiny new one.
Data can now be transferred over a wired LAN connection. This means that all you have to do is plug in an Ethernet cable to both of your systems’ ports and select the option to transfer the data. This will move across all user profiles, downloaded content, installed games and just about everything you could ask for. The perfect solution for those who still have the PT demo installed on their system.
A Few Small Changes
Rounding off the update are a couple of other minor changes and additions. Community sizes have now been upped to 100,000 allowing more gamers with similar interests to join and converse with one another without having to all add one another as friends.
Also, Folders have now been added, making it much easier for users to streamline their libraries of games and applications. A particularly handy feature for all of those Instant Games Collection titles you just don’t have the room for on your system. Oh, and you can rest easy that the usual tweaks and system stability updates were also part of the update.
