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There's no way to move PS5 games off the SSD - Eurogamer.net

Posted: 07 Nov 2020 07:30 AM PST

And PS5 game saves can't be backed up to USB.

Continuing our PlayStation 5 review process, Digital Foundry today presents a guided tour of the excellent new user interface, exploring the menu system and new functionality - and it was during the recording of this video that a couple of inconvenient issues came to light. The big one is this: right now, there seems to be no way of copying PS5 games away from the main system storage, presenting problems when the SSD is full. In this scenario, the only way to install new games is to delete old ones, meaning that to play them again you'll need to re-download them - deleting other installed PS5 games in the process. PlayStation 4 games installed to PS5 are not affected - these can be moved off to external USB storage.

In common with the Xbox Series consoles, next generation games for PS5 can only be run from internal storage (or the 1TB expansion card, in the case of the Microsoft consoles) and thus far, Sony has not whitelisted any third-party M.2 NVMe drives for extra solid state drive space. However, the difference here is Xbox consoles allow for all games old and new to be archived off to external storage. You can't run next-gen games from there, but at least you can shuttle the titles to and from internal storage without having to re-download them. This does not appear to be a viable solution for PS5.

To test this, we filled PS5's 667GB of available storage with PS4 games, then attempted to install a new PS5 title. The system asks we free up space, exactly as you would expect - and the only way to do that with PS5 game data would be to delete it. In an era where games routinely break the 100GB barrier, this presents problems and we really hope to see Sony address this as a matter of urgency.

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Digital Foundry's John Linneman presents a guided tour of the PlayStation 5 user interface. The game storage options are presented around the nine minute mark.

Less of an issue, but still more limited than PS4 is the way in which PS5 game save data is handled. On the PS5 user interface, it's still possible to backup and restore PS4 game data from USB. However, the USB option is gone when addressing PS5 saves. This is purely conjecture on my part, but the game save system on PS4 was hacked many years ago - and it's possible to purchase software that tweaks your saves with cheats, or allows you to share your saves with other users, instantly giving them platinum trophies, for example.

By keeping PS5 save data entirely within Sony's control, this increases security - but at the expense of user convenience. It should be stressed that PS5 does automatically archive save data by keeping it in the cloud, similar to the solution in play on Microsoft's consoles since the launch of Xbox One.

The SSD storage issue - and the lack of PS5 title archive options - is a concern though, and we've approached Sony for comment.

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Pick up an iPad Air? Here’s how to get the most out of iPadOS 14 and Apple Pencil - 9to5Mac

Posted: 06 Nov 2020 02:03 PM PST

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Whether you've recently picked up the 2020 iPad Air or will be getting one soon, there are a number of great new capabilities and features to enhance your experience between the new hardware, iPadOS 14, and Apple Pencil. And even if you're keeping your existing iPad, follow along for how to get the most out of iPadOS 14 and Apple Pencil.

While some of the features we'll discuss are unique to the iPad Air (or the 2018 and later iPad Pro) such as USB-C connectivity and Apple Pencil gen 2 support, you still get a lot of useful improvements with iPadOS 14 on any iPad that can run the software.

And if you're wanting a new iPad but are torn between the new Air and the 2020 iPad Pro, check out our walkthrough here:

Apple Pencil gen 2 support and new features

It's definitely exciting to see support for the second-generation Apple Pencil arrive with the iPad Air. Until now, Apple's most capable writing and illustration tool has only been compatible with the iPad Pro line, while the other iPads have been relegated to working with the original Apple Pencil.

Apple Pencil gen 2 has a more ergonomic design, uses wireless charging when attached to your iPad (instead of a Lightning connector which can be clunky), comes with tap gestures to do things like quickly change writing instruments and more, and provides an all-around improved experience for everything from illustration and other creative work to note-taking and productivity tasks like email.

With iPadOS 14, iPad Air users get great Apple Pencil capabilities with the new Scribble feature. This allows you to write in any text box on your iPad with Apple Pencil and also includes built-in shortcuts to quickly select, delete, and insert text.

Another great improvement for Apple Pencil with iPadOS 14 is the improved note-taking capabilities. You can select, copy, paste, handwritten text. And handwriting also works with data detection to make it easy to recognize and work with phone numbers, email addresses, addresses, etc.

Improved widgets with iPadOS 14

While it would be ideal to see the new iPad widgets match the functionality that debuted on iPhone with iOS 14 (work anywhere on the home screen or any app page), they are definitely still worth diving into.

The new iPadOS widgets work in the Today View portion of the home screen. They still offer useful new functionality and third-parties are building great support for the feature. One tip is to make the Today View permanent on your iPad if you'd like the effect of having home screen widgets on iPad.

USB-C features

New features based on USB-C aren't new with iOS 14 but will be new for many users who are moving to the 2020 iPad Air from an older iPad.

USB-C means you can use hubs to expand your iPad's I/O and many apps like Apple's own Files to third-party ones like Dropbox and Box support using external USB-C SSDs with iPad.

More to explore

Other handy things you'll want to explore include the new layouts for iPadOS 14 apps that feature a sidebar to more easily navigate and use them. And iPadOS 14 also brings 4K support to YouTube videos for the first time.

iPadOS also gets the compact call interface that arrived iPhone, while other small features like fullscreen live lyrics in the Music app and improved Markup tools deliver a richer experience.

What features or changes are you most excited about with iPadOS 14, Apple Pencil, or the new iPad Air? Share your ideas in the comments down below!

9to5Mac is brought to you by Concepts App. Sketch and design your ideas on an infinite canvas with flexible vector ink. Available on iPad and iPhone. Try it for free.