Posts From Zachary Wander

Zachary Wander
Zachary Wander

I write articles and develop apps for XDA. I'm also the developer of SystemUI Tuner. Yes, I'm bad at writing self-descriptions.

Realme X3 SuperZoom Review — An Actual Flagship Killer

Realme X3 SuperZoom Review — An Actual Flagship Killer

July 19, 2020
Flagship smartphones are getting more and more expensive. In 2014, $750 would have gotten you the best-of-the-best flagship of that generation. Now, you're looking at almost twice that price for the absolute best. It's increasingly becoming more difficult to justify a $1,000+ purchase for a base variant unless you really need all the features a...
Amazfit PowerBuds Review – Fitness-oriented TWS earbuds with iffy heart rate detection

Amazfit PowerBuds Review – Fitness-oriented TWS earbuds with iffy heart rate detection

June 28, 2020
Thanks to Apple's AirPods, truly wireless earbuds have exploded in popularity in the last few years. The non-Apple alternatives range from bad to good and cheap to expensive, with no correlation implied. Today, we're going to talk about a mid-range set of Bluetooth TWS earbuds aimed at a different niche. The Huami Amazfit PowerBuds are...
Google introduces Play Billing Library version 3 and plans to make App Bundles a requirement in 2021

Google introduces Play Billing Library version 3 and plans to make App Bundles a requirement in 2021

June 14, 2020
In-app purchases. As much as some may hate them, they're definitely here to stay. They're not without their advantages, though. An in-app purchase allows a developer to provide free and paid versions of their app without actually having to maintain two separate applications. If you publish your app on the Play Store, Google generally requires...
Google is redesigning the Play Console and adding new features to Android Studio, Kotlin, and Jetpack

Google is redesigning the Play Console and adding new features to Android Studio, Kotlin, and Jetpack

June 10, 2020
The Android 11 Beta might have just been released, but if you're a developer, there's more to be excited about. Along with Android 11, Google is introducing a whole bunch of goodies for developers, including a new Google Play Console design, new versions of Android Studio, and a bunch of AndroidX and Kotlin updates.Google Play...
StrandHogg 2.0 Exploit Explained – Why Users and Android App Developers should care

StrandHogg 2.0 Exploit Explained – Why Users and Android App Developers should care

May 29, 2020
It's 10:00 PM. Do you know where your Activities are? There's a new vulnerability that can be exploited on millions of Android devices, and it's a pretty nasty one, too. In a nutshell, this design flaw allows an attacker to present their own Activity (page) on top of another app's, potentially confusing the user into...
Google releases Android Studio 4.0 with a new Motion Editor, Build Analyzer, and more

Google releases Android Studio 4.0 with a new Motion Editor, Build Analyzer, and more

May 28, 2020
It seems like just yesterday (if yesterday was February) that Android Studio 3.6 was released with a bunch of useful additions and needed fixes. Now, a day (three months) later, Google has pushed Android Studio 4.0 to stable with even more useful additions and needed fixes. Read on to learn more about what's new.Motion Editor The...
Here’s how to run a Minecraft Server from your Android phone, because why not

Here’s how to run a Minecraft Server from your Android phone, because why not

May 23, 2020
Have you ever wanted to run a Minecraft server from your phone? No? Well, now you can. Thanks to a set of instructions from Reddit user endmymisouri, you can use an unrooted Android device to host a Minecraft server. In all seriousness, this is a good way to make use of an old Android phone...
Google’s CameraX Android API will let third-party apps use the best features of the stock camera

Google’s CameraX Android API will let third-party apps use the best features of the stock camera

March 29, 2020
There's a long-running joke on the Internet that you can tell if someone's using an Android phone by the bad quality of their selfies. While the memes are definitely exaggerating quite a bit, there's, unfortunately, a bit of truth behind them. Android phones have usually been ahead of iPhones in terms of camera performance, at...
Tronsmart Spunky Beat Review – A huge improvement in a small package

Tronsmart Spunky Beat Review – A huge improvement in a small package

March 5, 2020
It's been nearly four years since Apple ditched the headphone jack (yes, Moto did it first, no one cares). Many companies (including those who conveniently dropped the headphone jack from their own devices) have come out with wireless earbud and headphone options. We're here to talk about one such option from one such company: the...
Android 11 will harden hidden API restrictions and remove meta-reflection bypass

Android 11 will harden hidden API restrictions and remove meta-reflection bypass

January 21, 2020
For those of you not in-the-know, Google introduced a rather annoying change in Android 9 Pie that concerns enthusiast developers looking to push the boundaries of what's possible in Android. I'm talking, of course, about the addition of the hidden API blacklist. With the intent to promote application stability, Google blocked access to most hidden...
Google announces Flutter 1.12 with support for web, macOS, and more

Google announces Flutter 1.12 with support for web, macOS, and more

December 11, 2019
Google has been hard at work creating and expanding Flutter for the past few years. In case you think I'm talking about butterflies, Flutter is a cross-platform programming language. Its goal is to allow you to develop apps for any major platform with a single codebase. All you need to learn is Dart/JavaScript, and you...
OPPO Enco Q1 Wireless Noise-Cancelling Earphones Review — Accurate Marketing

OPPO Enco Q1 Wireless Noise-Cancelling Earphones Review — Accurate Marketing

December 9, 2019
Earphones are great. They let you listen to what you want to without disturbing others. And, more importantly, they let other people listen to what they want to, without disturbing you. Today we're going to take a look at the OPPO Enco Q1 wireless noise-cancelling earphones. While many companies are hopping on the true-wireless bandwagon, OPPO...