I have an ROG Ally and I love it. For those of you who don’t know, it’s a decently-powerful gaming PC in handheld form. Think of the Nintendo Switch or Steam Deck, but with more horsepower, and running Windows. At its heart, this is a fully-functional Windows PC with all of the capabilities that a Windows PC has, with great build-in speakers and microphone. In addition to the Ally there are other handheld gaming PCs to choose from, including the Lenovo Legion Go, and soon the MSI Claw which will be powered by an Intel Core Ultra (Meteor Lake) CPU.
This got me thinking. There are probably some really cool, novel use-cases for this hardware when it comes to Japanese that I’m not fully taking advantage of. With the Switch we think of being able to play visual novels or games in Japanese. With PCs we think of having access to browser plug-ins, SRS software, and so may other interesting tools, in addition to an enormous variety of games across Steam, Epic, GOG, emulators, and more. Now we can have the best of both worlds while on the bus, laying in bed, sitting on the couch, or traveling. How could we make the most of this?
* Is there any software that makes playing Japanese games easier or more productive that wouldn’t be hampered by using handheld controls instead of a mouse?
* How would you mine new vocab if you had a handheld PC in bed with you? Some Netflix overlay? A specific plug-in?
* Is there any app or API for a website that you think would look great and function well on a handheld device?
* What other use-cases can you think of?
These devices are relatively affordable (compared to PCs), extremely capable, and incredibly convenient. They’re going to keep gaining in popularity, and I feel like we could come up with some super cool study methods using them!
by Tranquil-Lo