In 2024, I bought an ASUS ROG Ally Z1, a handheld gaming PC. Since then, I've done a lot of customisations to it, both on the software and hardware sides, and I thought it'd be a good idea to document them here; maybe I'll help someone overcome some of the problems I faced, with time saved on looking for solutions, and also provide some ideas for what you can do with this thing. As of 2026, I still use the device often, and it's plugging along nicely.
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FreeTube is fantastic, and since it started including support for SponsorBlock, it has become my main way of consuming YouTube content. The only downside being the fact that there is no built-in way to synchronize your setup across computers. By the power of open source, let's fix it!
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This is kind of a followup post to Using a Mac Mini as a bedroom PC for Kodi, Moonlight and YouTube.
It's been nearly a year since I set up a Mac Mini as my one-stop-shop for all multimedia related tasks in the bedroom. It's generally worked well, and both streaming media, games, general web browsing and PC usage has been smooth. You're rolling around in bed, playing video games, watching YouTube, or maybe the freshest episode of Smiling Friends. But then you fall asleep, and the fun abruptly stops.
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The problem
I recently purchased a double pack of wireless microphones (specifically, these ones) to replace my ageing and faltering wired one. I am very happy with the audio quality, their ease of use and their range, but for my specific use case, the battery life (around 3 hours) leaves a little to be desired. I mainly use these while hanging out with a friend over the internet while sharing my screen, and we'll watch movies and TV shows together. That can last a couple of hours or even most of the day, and at some point the battery for the microphone will run out.
The first time this happened, it took me a little while to understand what was going on, as there was no beep or any indication from the microphone to signal its demise. Apparently the LED on the device will blink when it's low on battery, but that's impossible to see when it's clipped to my shirt right underneath my chin.
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Persistent nostalgia
The past few months, I've spent some time to set up a room in my house to be a pretty sweet space dedicated to retro-gaming. This includes a vintage PC, a CRT TV, and a multitude of classic games consoles hooked up to four RCA/AV switches. This works well, and to play the console we want, one can just flip a couple of switches instead of having to unplug and shuffle around literally 8 different sets of RCA cables.
Thing is, when you're playing games, especially during couch coop, things tend to happen. Some of these things, depending on the types of games you play, can be utterly hilarious, and worth saving for posterity. With the two last generations of consoles I own, PS5, PS4 and the Nintendo Switch, you can just press a single button on the controller to save recent gameplay as a file to the system storage, which is awesome. When you also enjoy playing on 20-30 year old game consoles as well, this part becomes a bit trickier.
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