Well, would you look at that. Someone went and dissected their Nexus 4. 

But that's not just any someone. That's Rod Whitby of webOS Internals fame who's taken apart his Nexus 4, with the intent of swapping out the Qi wireless charging for the tried and true, old-school (and now defunct) Palm Touchstone. (As we showed last year, the Nexus 4 and Touchstone are not compatible.)  "Qi charging (or at least the physical implementation of it on current devices) is inferior to Palm Touchstone charging," Whitby wrote recently on Google+.

Nexus 4 wireless charging became a bit of a thing this week when webOS Nation editor -- and like many of us here a multi-platform tinkerer -- expressed his loathing for the Nexus 4's official wireless charging orb. So Whitby, as any good Android hacker should appreciate, is doing something about it. And he's no stranger to this sort of mod, having performed it on the Galaxy Nexus as well as on the Nexus 7.

Will this one be successful? It's going to be a tight fit, Whitby writes. But if anyone can do it, it's him. 

Source: +Rod Whitby

Officially not for sale until April 19, but some folks are hearing differently -- and one fellow scored his today!

Update: We reached out to AT&T, and can confirm that the official release date is still April 19. 

If you're ready to buy the HTC One from AT&T, you might want to go visit your local store this evening. That's what go3go from the forums did, and he walked out with a shiny new HTC One in silver for his troubles.

Just went in to my local AT&T store to check up on the pre-order deal with the media link since it said it was out of stock online. Was told the pre-order period was last week and the phone was out today. Walked out with a silver 32 gig. Still kind of in shock, since I was convinced it wouldn't be out till next week O_o

It's a kick-ass phone, and we're glad that go3go was able to get his, but we have to wonder -- was the AT&T salesperson a bit confused about which HTC phone was released today, or is this just a quiet early launch? "Officially" the HTC One goes on sale April 19. 

If you dropped in on AT&T and checked, what did you find out? Let us know in the comments, and be sure to congratulate go3go on his score.

Source: HTC One forums

Facebook Home is now available in Google Play, but not for every Android device. Facebook says it'll be adding more in the near future. (And if you don't mind a little hackery, you should be able to get it onto your phone easily enough.)

Here is the list of phones that are officially able to run Facebook Home. We'll update it for the first several months as Facebook adds more devices. (Facebook Home currently is only officially available in the United States.)

Sprint this morning announced that it's now carrying the Samsung Galaxy S3 in purple -- OK, amethyst purple, they call it -- for $99 on contract (and after a $50 mail-in rebate). That'll get you the 16GB version of the GS3, which is about to be replaced by the Galaxy S4 sometime this quarter. But, hey! Purple!

$99.99 on-contract or $449.99 up-front, available in black, white, red or pale blue

A little over a week after its announcement at Facebook HQ, the HTC First is available to buy from AT&T. The Facebook Home-equipped handset puts the social network front and center, with Facebook's new launcher bringing your news feed (and neat little features like chat heads) directly onto your home screen.

The HTC First will set you back $99.99 on a standard two-year contract, or $449.99 if you're buying it outright. All four color options -- black, white, red and pale blue -- are available over on AT&T's site.

Incidentally, we're not yet seeing Facebook Home on the Google Play Store, but that's also due to launch today alongside the Facephone. We'll continue watching throughout the day and keep you posted.

More: Hands-on with the HTC First

Source: AT&T

Image: NYT

Android app arms police with real-time data

Some 400 police officers in New York have been equipped with Android smartphones and a new crime-fighting Android app under a pilot scheme, the New York Times reports.

The app is designed to give officers the ability to run person and address searches, bringing in information from several different sources. Officers can look up police records on individuals, including photos, and access vehicle registration records. The app is also fully location-aware -- NYPD officer Tom Donaldson told the NYT “If I see that in the last month, there have been six arrests on the seventh floor for drug trafficking, maybe I want to hang out on the seventh floor for a while.”

Police would previously have had to rely on cumbersome laptop-based systems in their patrol cars to retrieve this info, or radio details back to a dispatcher. The app, officers tell the NYT, offers a much easier way to access this data. Donaldson explains, “Our dispatcher will tell us if they have a warrant or not but it’s a simple yes or no answer. I don’t know if the guy is wanted for murder or for not paying a parking summons. We rarely know. Now we know.”

Source: The New York Times; via: The Verge

UK carrier appears to be following in the footsteps of T-Mobile USA, allowing customers to pay off their phone separately to their service plan

O2 UK has announced the launch of "O2 Refresh," a new kind of price plan designed to disconnect the cost of smartphones from the cost of service plans. On O2 Refresh, customers effectively pay a separate service charge and monthly installments towards the cost of the phone.

That means O2 customers wanting to upgrade early can simply pay off the remaining amount on their phone plan and start a new one, with no changes to the service plan. Naturally, if you're upgrading O2 encourages you use its O2 Recycle service to cash in on the value of your old phone, up to £260. Alternatively, if customers fully pay off their phone plan they'll then only pay the service fee each month.

O2 refresh service plans range from £12 per month for 600 minutes, unlimited texts and 750MB up to £22 p.m. for unlimited minutes and texts, and 2GB. From Apr. 16 O2 Refresh will be available with the HTC One, Sony Xperia Z, Blackberry Z10, Samsung Galaxy S3 and iPhone 5, with the option of making an up-front payment towards the cost of the phone.

In today's press statement O2 points out that many smartphone owners want to upgrade more than once every two years. O2 Recycle allows them to do just that, in a more economical way, while cleverly renewing their commitment to O2 in the process. (After all, phones purchased through O2 will be locked to the network.) The network also cites its push towards 4G LTE this summer as a reason for making it easier for customers to pick up new 4G-capable handsets.

On the other side of the Atlantic T-Mobile USA has been switching to a similar system, with separate service fees and installments towards buying your phone, as well as the option to pay off the remaining cost of your device at any time.

Brits, hit the comments below and let us know if you'd switch to O2 for this kind of deal.

Source: O2

Available from Samsung and major operators

Previously announced just over a week ago, Samsung has confirmed availability for the Galaxy Pocket Neo in the United KIngdom. Targeted at the entry level market, this phone will spare the specs in exchange for being easy on the wallet. Packing a 3-inch TFT screen, 850 MHz processor, and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, the Pocket Neo will be hitting the store shelves in mid-May.

Look for this economically-friendly smartphone in the Samsung Experience Store at the Westfield Stratford City, as well as your favorite major operator. For an in-depth look at the Pocket Neo's specifications, hit the break for the full press release.

Prepaid carrier to launch LG's cheap and cheerful LTE handset, says @evleaks

LG's Optimus F series is all about introducing low-cost, mid-range LTE-capable hardware to the market, and so a prepaid carrier like Boost Mobile seems a natural fit for the Optimus F7, the higher-specced device of the two. According to prolific Twitter leaker @evleaks and 9to5Google, that's exactly where the Optimus F7 will end up, alongside Boost's two existing LTE offerings, the HTC One SV and ZTE Force.

In addition to the aforementioned LTE radios, the LG Optimus F7 packs a 1.5GHz dual-core CPU, a 4.7-inch 720p display and an 8-megapixel camera, placing it squarely in the middle of the road when it comes to smartphone hardware specs.

We went hands-on with the Optimus F5 and F7 at Mobile World Congress back in February, so check our write-up for some first impressions and photos of the Korean version.

Source: 9to5Google

Update only available via KIES software, AT&T makes the update offical

The Jelly Bean flavor of Android is hitting yet another phone today. (OK, this one's been available for a couple days now, but this morning AT&T made it official.) This time it's AT&T's Samsung Galaxy S2 Skyrocket that's getting Android 4.1.2, some nine months after its Ice Cream Sandwich update. This one's only available through Samsung's KIES desktop software, unfortunately, but that's a small price to pay for a big update. 

Here's what you have to look forward to:

• Google Now with enhanced voice activation
• Adds Browser bar, Drive Mode, ATT Locker, Mobile Hot Spot, Featured Apps widget as preloaded applications
• Removes Qik and MSpot applications
• Improved Call Quality

Samsung's KIES software is available on Windows or Mac. Be sure you've got at least 50 percent battery before performing surgery.

Download: Samsung KIES; Galaxy S2 Skyrocket Jelly Bean Instructions