Now that the new hotness from Samsung, in the form of the Galaxy S4, is out of the proverbial bag, the waiting has begun in earnest. And as everyone knows, the waiting is, indeed, the hardest part.

Fortunately, those of you who want to order a Galaxy S4 and don’t mind using AT&T’s network, don’t have to wait quite as long as the rest of the population. That’s right, starting on April 16th, AT&T will be taking pre-orders for the Galaxy S4.

No, you can’t actually buy one and have it in your hands on the 16th, you can only pre-order it. The best part? AT&T has not given an actual release date for the device yet. Huh.

After so many years, people had pretty much written off T-Mobile as a carrier who offered Apple’s iPhone. It seemed, except for those of you inclined to jailbreak, using an iPhone on T-Mobile’s network was just never going to happen.

That is, until now. Well, not until April 12th to be exact. That’s right T-Mobile fans, the iPhone is coming to a network near you.

Today the company announced that it would start selling the iPhone 5 for $99 on April 12th. You won’t have to sign any long-term contract either. You will, however, have to agree to pay T-Mobile an extra $20 a month over a 20-month period to fully pay off the cost of the device.

You also have the option of paying full price for the device up front and then the extra fee is waived. For more, check out the full press release after the break.

When I left Apple and AT&T for Verizon several years ago, the VZ iPhone had yet to be announced. So, my first Verizon experience was with an HTC Droid Incredible.

In short, I really liked it and from that moment on, I was a fan of HTC and their products. In fact, they continue to be my favorite Android smartphone manufacturer. Sorry Samsung.

So, good news for me (and the rest of you HTC fans out there) because this morning the new hotness known as the HTC One was finally unveiled. The device comes with a 4.7 inch Full HD 1080p display at 468 PPI, is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 1.7GHz quad-core processor, an UltraPixel camera, Sense 5.0, 2GB of RAM, NFC, and a 2,300mAh battery.

Sounds great, right? The only downside for me, so far, is the list of potential carriers. At this point it looks like T-Mobile, AT&T, and Sprint will have the One, but no Verizon. Not that I was planning on switching to an HTC One from the iPhone 5, but it’s nice to have options.

Check out the full press release from HTC after the break as well as a shiny video that tells you more about this cool device.

Late last night Samsung finally announced what many in the Android-loving community have been waiting for: carriers, pricing and availability dates for the Galaxy SIII. Well, wonder no more because the flagship smartphone will launch on Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile starting in June.

“The U.S. launch of the Galaxy S III is the most anticipated launch of the year. As promised, we are delivering the ‘next big thing’ for U.S. customers and across all major carriers,” president of Samsung America Dale Sohn said in a statement. “Galaxy S III introduces new technological innovation and takes sharing to the next level.”

For Verizon, preorder availability will begin on June 6th with the device priced at $199.99 for the 16GB model. The 32GB model will cost $249.99 with a two-year contract, and both models will be available in either white or blue. T-Mobile confirmed that it will launch its version of the Galaxy S III on June 21 but no pricing was given.

Sprint will offer the device starting on June 21st, with preorders beginning Tuesday, June 5th. It will come in two versions, a 16GB model for $199.99 and a 32GB model for $249.99. Sprint is also the only U.S. carrier to preload Google Wallet on the device.

Nothing from AT&T yet but we expect that announcement to come soon. In the meantime, Samsung’s full press release is after the break.

As with all cutting edge technology, something else comes along to displace the “new hot thing” very shortly after the new hot thing comes out. Case in point this time around is the flagship Android smartphone known as the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

Today, the contract-free price for the device has dropped to $399.00, down a hundred bucks. It’s now available from Google’s online Google Play Store for that price.

In case you haven’t been following the rise of this particular device, it was originally released last October and launched on Verizon Wireless in mid-December. But even though it’s been around for several months, it’s still got some very good specs.

Some of these specs include a 4.65-inch 720p Super AMOLED display, a dual-core 1.2GHz processor, 16GB of internal storage, 1GB of RAM, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and GSM/HSPA compatibility with both AT&T and T-Mobile.

The best part is that this phone is unlocked and you can take advantage of some pretty good SIM only deals from AT&T or T-Mobile. At this price, it’s pretty tempting indeed.

Call it an Easter miracle, or whatever else you want, but it would appear, at least according to the folks at Engadget and BGR, that AT&T will indeed unlock user’s iPhones beginning this Sunday. Now before you go and get too excited, there’s a couple things to be aware of.

First, this has not been 100% confirmed by AT&T. Even though one spokesman did email a confirmation to BGR. So, take it with a big grain of salt until you see it actually happening. Second, if it turns out to be true, it won’t apply to every iPhone customer using AT&T.

Here’s the rules: A customer’s “account must be in good standing, their device cannot be associated with a current and active term commitment on an AT&T customer account, and they need to have fulfilled their contract term, upgraded under one of our upgrade policies or paid an early termination fee.”

So, there you go. If you meet the above criteria and have always wanted to jump ship from AT&T to another GSM carrier that can support the Micro SIM and has the same frequencies as AT&T (T-Moblie, for example), now’s your chance. Maybe.

I’ll believe it when I see it. Of course, there’s also other alternatives.

Now that we know Apple will be announcing something next week on October 4th, the speculation can continue as to what that will be. And here’s one for today.

Mac Rumors reports that a China Unicom executive apparently confirmed during a presentation at this week’s Macworld Asia that the “iPhone 5” set to be announced next week will support HSPA+, which is sometimes called “4G.” This technology  offers a maximum theoretical data speed of 21 Mbps.

They’ve even got a photo of a slide presented during the talk that seems to support the assertion. According to the report, research vice president of China Unicom, Huan Wenliang, said the iPhone 5 “will support W-CDMA based high-speed data transfer standard HSPA Evolution” (aka HSPA+) during a keynote speech at the event.

T-Mobile and AT&T both offer 21Mbps HSPA+ in the United States and market the networks as “4G,” although it really should be thought of as more “3.5G” if anything, based on the speed. Apple is reportedly testing a true 4G LTE iPhone but we probably won’t see that being announced next week.

To be honest, I’m surprised it took this long. But now it seems our government here in the U.S. has finally decided to take action and attempt to stop a merger that should not take place anyway.

That’s right, the government has filed a lawsuit in an attempt to block AT&T’s proposed $39 Billion acquisition of T-Mobile USA. According to the complaint, such a deal would “substantially lessen competition” in the U.S. wireless market. Bloomberg reports that the complaint was filed with the U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday, and the government is asking for a declaration that the proposed merger would violate U.S. antitrust laws.

“AT&T’s elimination of T-Mobile as an independent, low- priced rival would remove a significant competitive force from the market,” the U.S. said in its filing. AT&T has argued that it needs T-Mobile’s spectrum in order to improve service quality and cover the majority of the U.S. population with 4G LTE service.

Well, I can understand them wanting to improve service quality. However, competition is good and as long as T-Mobile is around, AT&T will have to work that much harder. That won’t hurt them one bit. In fact, it might just help them.

As of today Apple began selling unlocked iPhone 4 handsets in the U.S. only. The smartphone is now available in 16GB for $649 or 32GB for $749, and both models come in black or white.

This marks a change in Apple policy dating back to the first iPhone where the device was only available for AT&T GSM users. Now, it can be used with pretty much any GSM carrier, as long as modifications can be made for those who don’t yet use the micro-SIM card.

Personally, even though the price of the iPhone is high in its unlocked state, I would probably go this way to avoid a long-term contract with any one carrier. Also, this allows people to get their hands on the iPhone 4 now and then use the subsidy pricing to pick up an iPhone 5 once they launch later this year.

Sure, the price is probably too high for many buyers but to some this represents the best scenario when it comes to dealing with carrier monopolies. I, for one, think Apple should have done this a long time ago.

In what may not be completely surprising news but, at least to some, may be disappointing, your choices of wireless carrier in the U.S. look to be dropping by one. Why? AT&T, the nation’s second largest wireless provider, announced late yesterday that they will acquire T-Mobile USA from parent company Deutsche Telekom in a cash and stock deal worth approximately $39 Billion.

What does that mean for you and me? Well, for me at least, it means nothing. I’m a Verizon Wireless customer. For those of you who are not or who enjoy having as many wireless choices as possible, it means you will now have to pick between AT&T, Verizon or Sprint if you want to go with a national wireless company.

Choice and, more to the point, competition, is one of the best things about pretty much any kind of business. Competition forces companies to constantly innovate and hopefully strive to be better and treat customers well so they will stay. Having fewer choices and thus less competition can allow companies to become complacent and not try their best.

With the lackluster reputation AT&T already has with many customers, I can’t see that the company having fewer competitors is a good thing. What’s their motivation to change and be better if the customer has nowhere else to go? The answer is they won’t have any. And that, friends, is not good.

Click through to check out the full press release from AT&T about this announcement.