Buying a new smartphone is expensive. Sometimes there is no way around it, but AT&T is trying to help folks get a brand new device in their pockets with the intro of trade-in discounts on select devices. If your phone is less than three years old and works well, then it could be worth anywhere from a minimum of $100 and up, turning that $199 on a new two year price for a Galaxy S4 or HTC One into $99 or less with a new contract. 

Today, AT&T is lighting up a whole mess of new 4G LTE markets here in the U.S. If you have a 4G LTE capable device and live in one of the below-listed areas, you should either already see 4G or will very soon. 

According to Steve “Cyanogen” Kondik, the AT&T version of the Samsung Galaxy S4 has a locked bootloader. Samsung has typically been pretty open to the developer community over the years outside of their devices on Verizon, so this comes as a bit of a surprise. However, times appear to be changing for the worse with carriers if AT&T is jumping on board to authenticate “recovery and boot images before executing them” on their flagship phones. More often than not as of late, we have seen carrier-tied devices come with an extra layer of protection to keep ROM flashers and tinkerers from actually owning their devices.

It’s anyone’s guess as to why they’d take this approach, but if you ask them they’ll likely throw out some garbage about someone with a rooted device, running custom software potentially ruining the network experience for others.

News flash! Even tech bloggers don’t get to keep devices that are sent to them for review purposes. No sir, we have to pick and choose our personal devices with care just like each and every one of you. Sure, we get to put our grubby little paws all over the newest tech before the general public, but that doesn’t mean those devices hang around for more than a couple of weeks. Once our reviews are done, we tend to ship them back to PR departments before going back to whatever phone we have chosen to be our daily driver. After some time spent with both the new HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4, I have made a decision on what that new daily driver should be. 

Twitter account @evleaks is at it again this morning, this time leaking a press render for the upcoming LG Optimus G Pro for AT&T. This is the same device that is set to be announced at an LG press event next week on May 1, so this is when things get exciting. We are putting our bets on the device’s specs to not change too much from the Korean version, which is one beast of a device. 

Today, RadioShack announced availability for the Samsung Galaxy S4 beginning this Saturday, April 27 in retail stores. The device will be available on both AT&T and Sprint, as the Verizon version’s availability has not yet been announced. As an added bonus, they will also have a few of the Galaxy S4′s accessories on hand, giving customers a $10 off coupon when they make a purchase of $30 or more.

If you are not the biggest fan of going into a certified retailer of a carrier and have a Shack close to home, it’s good to know you have options for where you can pick up your new phone.

If you pre-ordered your Samsung Galaxy S4 from AT&T, you may have a wonderful surprise waiting inside your inbox this afternoon. AT&T is notifying customers that they are able to ship devices earlier than originally expected, with some arriving as early as April 25. We were sort of expecting the arrival and launch date to be April 26, but hey, we’ll take anything from Samsung’s flagship line a day early.

Also, we should point out that AT&T’s site is showing the Galaxy S4 as shipping April 30, so that could potentially be the official launch date, which they have yet to supply us.

Update:  AT&T Tweeted that April 27 is actually the in-store launch date.

The HTC One is now available from AT&T and Sprint, along with a handful of retailers across the country. After being announced back in February we were starting to wonder if this day would come thanks to reports of delays. Both AT&T and Sprint are selling the 32GB version for $199 on new 2-year contract. AT&T also has an exclusive 64GB version that can be purchased for $299 on contract.