If you didn’t pick up a new device during all the holiday commotion, no need to fret. T-Mobile is holding a “New Year, New Phone” sale this weekend only, and will be discounting the down payment needed to pick up a new device. The promotion starts January 6th and runs through the 8th, with many in-store 4G phones, tablets, and hotspots getting the discount treatment. You’ll have to visit your local T-Mobile store for a complete list of discounted devices, but here’s a peek at a few of the Android devices needing a down payment of $49.99 or less:

Ahhh, the unlocked bootloader aka the keys to the kingdom. An unlocked bootloader may or may not mean anything to you depending on your level of OS involvement, but having one “unlocked,” is always a good thing in my book. HTC also understands the importance of unlocked bootloaders, and how they help the developer community. This is why they started allowing users to “unlock” their device bootloader via the HTCdev website. Every so often HTC adds a new device to the official list and provides instructions on how to unlock it. Today, HTC has added two new devices to that list: the EVO View 4G and the MyTouch 4G Slide. Users of either of these devices now have an official way to unlock their bootloaders and begin tinkering with their device. So what exactly does “tinkering” mean, and is it something I want to do?

More than 75 percent of the handsets T-Mobile sells are smartphones, the carrier told a gathering at this week’s Mobilize 2011 forum held in San Francisco. What’s more, 90 percent of those smartphones are powered by the Android operating system.