The new system, carried out with a device called ACESO, is supplied by UK mobile forensics company Radio Tactics. Metropolitan Police authorities will use the system to download all call log, photo, video, social media, and text message information on phones. Previously, phones had to be sent to a forensics lab to gather data from a phone suspected to have been used in a crime.

The issue of privacy, both on personal devices and in general, is a hot button worldwide. While the ability to solve a crime quickly is great, many would say that personal rights are even more important. Citizens are rightly reticent to trust government and law enforcement, so such news is at best seen as a double-edged sword.

Perhaps most concerning is that it appears that London police may be able to use ACESO to download your information if you’re simply suspected of a crime. Even worse, it’s not clear if the information is kept if you are cleared. Here’s hoping that policy dictates they do the right thing and delete the phone data of innocent citizens.

While everyone hopes that law enforcement always has the best intentions in mind, that isn’t always the case. Even when they do, no one is perfect, and even with the best of intentions sometimes police will go beyond what is allowed by law to solve a crime. With that in mind, anyone concerned with privacy rights should be suspect of abuse with the ACESO system.

What say you, loyal readers? Would you say this new Metropolitan Police policy is a good or bad thing?

NEXT: Diagnosis – System Information: Android app for monitoring your phone system

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With technology enthusiasts in the United States still not knowing when (and for what price) to expect the Galaxy S3, Sammy’s new flagship phone, things are starting to shape up in Europe.

UK’s most important carriers have officially announced when they’ll put the phone up for sale and how much it will cost. The good news is that you’ll be able to get the Galaxy S3 free of charge. The bad news is that not all carriers offer the next Galaxy for free, and those that do require some hefty new plans to be activated.

Vodafone will be the first UK carrier to sell the S3, one day before all its competitors, and will also be the first to offer both the 16 and the 32 GB versions. Starting on May 29, you’ll be able to get the Galaxy S3 for free if you choose the £36 a month two-year plan, including 1200 minutes, 3000 texts and 500 MB of data.

O2, Three and Orange will start selling the Galaxy S3 on May 30 and, like Vodafone, they all have plans allowing you to get the phone without paying anything upfront. Three’s plan is the most affordable and will cost you a mere £34 a month, Orange will charge you £36 each month, while O2’s contract will get £41 out of your pockets every 30 days.

As for included options, all three plans are pretty generous, with O2 leading the pack with a slight advantage, offering 600 minutes of voice calls, unlimited text messages, and 1 GB of data a month for two full years.

The latest UK carrier to announce its exact plans for the Galaxy S3 is T-Mobile. Unfortunately, on May 30, T-Mobile customers will not be able to get the Samsung Galaxy S3 free of charge, the phone’s starting price on-contract being £49.99.

However, you should keep in mind that T-Mobile has, by far, the most generous plans in the UK, the Full Monty two-year agreement (going with the S3) including unlimited data, texts and calls to other T-Mobile customers, as well as 2,000 minutes of monthly voice calls to other networks. You’ll only have to pay £36 a month for all these, so, in the long term, T-Mo’s offer might actually be more affordable than those of Vodafone, O2, Three, or Orange.

What do you UK tech geeks have to say about your carriers’ offers? Are you satisfied with the prices and plans announced for the Galaxy S3? Will you be getting in line for one of Sammy’s new flagship phones on May 29 and 30? What is the best deal money can buy, in your opinion?

NEXT: Samsung Galaxy S to land with all 4 major US carriers?

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If you thought that Panasonic was kidding when it announced some time ago that it intends to take Europe by storm with its new Eluga and Eluga Power smartphones, you thought wrong, boys and girls!

Less than a month after the official Japan release and just a couple of days after popping up for sale in Germany, the Eluga has started selling in the UK, with several other European markets expected to follow suite within a week or so. The smartphone is, for the time being, available for all you British blokes out there in an unlocked version, from Expansys. The model, without any carrier or network restrictions, retails for £369.99. That’s around €460, or $610, which you can’t say is an exaggerated price.

Okay, the Panasonic Eluga might not be powered by a quad-core processor or run Android Ice Cream Sandwich out of the box, but it still should deliver enough raw power to satisfy a regular mobile user, plus, it comes with a really special design and a water-proof surface.

If you’re thinking about getting the unlocked Eluga phone from Expansys, you should know that only the silver model is available for sale, for now. The black version is still on pre-order, and, if you want that, you should wait for a couple more days. Also, keep in mind that the delivery might be a bit slow right now, with the British retailer warning that it could take up to five days for you to receive your device.

Inside that water-resistant and dustproof body, the Panasonic Eluga comes with a dual-core 1 GHz TI OMAP processor, as well as 1 GB of RAM, 8 GB of on-board storage, a 4.3-inch screen with 960 x 540 pixels resolution, and an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera.

Panasonic’s new handheld is expected to hit major carriers in the UK and the rest of Europe, by the end of the month, while US availability is still kept under wraps. It’s possible for the phone to never hit the American market, but then again, if it will prove successful enough in the rest of the world, it might see the light of day in the US of A after all.

Keep in touch with our website for more details about the phone set to come our way soon! Also, please tell us what do you think about the Eluga and whether you’re considering purchasing a SIM free model from Expansys or holding out for a cheaper, carrier branded version.

As expected, the Samsung Galaxy S3 fever is increasing as we get closer to the official unveiling, next week. While we still have very little in terms of official information about the future handheld, the PR guys at Samsung are doing a brilliant job of keeping us on our toes and gradually “leaking” details about it.

The most recent news we have to report about the “next Galaxy” is, believe it or not, official, and, even though it doesn’t refer to the phone’s tech specs, features or pricing, it should make a couple of tech geeks even more excited about the upcoming Android “beast”.

Vodafone UK and O2, the two biggest mobile carriers in the United Kingdom, have officially announced they will sell Samsung’s upcoming flagship gadget. Neither Vodafone, nor O2 have announced exactly when they are expecting to start shipping the future Galaxy S3 (duh!), but it should be nice for all you British blokes out there to know for sure that the phone will be coming to your favorite carrier in the near future.

On the other hand, we must say that the news is not a big surprise and doesn’t come as a revelation of any sorts, considering the fact that in the UK, unlike the US, most major phones are made available on all important networks quickly after their release.

On a different front, independent retailer Carphone Warehouse has followed Amazon Germany’s suite and has just listed the Galaxy S3 as “expected: coming soon”. The listing is accompanied by a teeny weenie preview pic of the phone, but before you get too excited, we should tell you that it doesn’t look like much.

The phone shown in the photo is very generic and the image is so tiny and hazy that it’s almost impossible to say if that’s an actual design or just how someone imagined the Galaxy S3 might look. If I were a betting man (and I am), I’d say that the phone in the pic is in fact the “next Galaxy”, but is in the same “disguise” we saw a while back in a video clip leaked by a Vietnamese website.

What’s interesting, though, is that Carphone Warehouse is listing the phone as the “Samsung Galaxy S3”, which could be well interpreted as another hint towards the handheld’s final name. And if we take this and add it to that S3 “slip” in Samsung’s official Unpacked app on Google Play, I think it’s starting to become likely that the phone will in fact not be called the “new Galaxy S”, the “next Galaxy S”, the “Galaxy S2 Plus”, or God knows how else.

Only one week before the Galaxy S3 will (or should) be unveiled in London and there are still so many things we don’t know about it! And even though I for one wouldn’t expect anything new and official to come up in the following days, you should keep in touch with our website for more leaks, rumors, and speculations set to come tumbling our way!

NEXT: Dell Streak / Mini 5 heading to O2 UK, Carphone Warehouse. Coming to U.S. this summer

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Unveiled back in February at the MWC, Sony’s Xperia P and Xperia U Android-based smartphones didn’t exactly look like a duo to die for. With beautiful designs, but rather modest specs and an almost inexplicable ICS omission, the two devices were received with mixed feelings by pundits and regular users. And if the lackluster innards of the two Xperias didn’t provide enough reasons for dissatisfaction, the Xperia P and U have just had their UK release delayed.

Initially set to hit the British market on May 7, the two sleek gadgets from Sony will start shipping three weeks later, on May 28. If you’re still bent to purchase one of these thingies and this new delay doesn’t put you off, you should know that Clove is currently taking pre-orders in the United Kingdom.

The Xperia U will ship in classic black and white, while the P will be made available in silver and black for £170 and £275 respectively (£204 and £330, VAT included). All prices are for unlocked phones, so you might get a better deal if you sign up for a contract.

Both Xperia phones will be powered by identical dual-core 1 GHz processors and will run Android 2.3 Gingerbread out of the box, with “planned” upgrades to Ice Cream Sandwich set to take place sometime in the near future.

The Xperia P will sport a 4-inch LCD capacitive touchscreen with 960 x 540 pixels resolution, along with 1 GB of RAM, 16 GB of on-board storage, as well as an 8 MP rear-facing shooter, a VGA front-facing camera, NFC, HDMI and DLNA connectivity.

As you might already know (or at least suspect), the Xperia U will sport a smaller 3.5-inch screen with 854 x 480 pixels resolution and will feature just 512 MB of RAM, 4 GB of internal memory, and a 5 MP rear-facing camera, with a VGA front-facing webcam. On the outside, aside from the obvious difference in size, the two will look almost identical.

Neither of the two smartphones have confirmed release dates or official prices next to their names for the rest of the Europe or the United States, but I personally would expect them to be made available worldwide sometime in late May or early June.

Are you guys excited about the Xperia P and U? Hit us back with a comment and let us know!

NEXT: Brightstar deal may see Sony Xperia S, Xperia P, and Xperia U landing in US

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Clove was expecting to start shipping the accessories mid-January, but a statement on their blog today states other wise. Citing delays from Samsung as the cause for the delay, their expected ship date is now February 13th. Pretty disappointing but what can we do? It’s like the Verizon Galaxy Nexus launch all over again. As Clove said in their blog post this morning “we know this is not the news that you wish to hear, but unfortunately we can not supply you the product until we have the stock.” It most definitely is not the news we wanted to hear this morning, but here we go with the waiting game.

As always you can count on Android Authority to bring you the latest on this story, and hopefully we won’t have to wait longer then February 13th. Are you disappointed? Let us know in the comments.

NEXT: Galaxy Nexus Accessories Arrive in Stores

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This is it. It’s coming. But you’ll have to wait a little more. At least Samsung is giving us some peace of mind by saying it’s arriving this month, and has already confirmed that the official release date will be November 17th for UK:

4th November 2011, London, UK – Samsung today announced the first smartphone to feature Android™ 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and a 4.65″ HD Super AMOLED display, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, will be available in the UK from Thursday 17th November.

The Galaxy Nexus™ is the first smartphone to feature a 4.65’’ HD Super AMOLED display with a market-leading resolution of 720p (1280×720), ensuring vivid colours and excellent picture clarity. The Galaxy Nexus also comes with a 5 megapixel camera and new rounded design that measures just 8.94mm thick and features a minimal 4.29mm screen bezel.

The Galaxy Nexus features the latest version of the Android platform, 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), which brings an entirely new look and feel to Android. It has a redesigned user interface with improved multi-tasking, notifications, Wi-Fi hotspot, NFC support and a full web browsing experience, while introducing new innovations such as ‘Face Unlock’, which uses facial recognition to unlock your phone. It also comes with integrated Google+™, allowing you to ‘hang out’ with friends and talk over Google+ Messenger. Google™’s services are connected to the cloud, keeping your email, contacts, and other data synced across your devices.

The latest handset from Samsung and Google is designed to provide a “pure Google” experience and users will be the first to receive software upgrades as they become available. It also features a number of Google Mobile services, including: Android Market™, Gmail™, Google Maps™ 5.11 with 3D maps and turn-by-turn navigation, Google Earth™, Movie Studio, YouTube™, syncing with Google Calendar™ and a redesigned Google+ app.

The Galaxy Nexus also features an ultra-fast 1.2GHz dual core processor and HSPA+ connectivity, providing superior power and speed.

Simon Stanford, Head of Mobile, Samsung UK and Ireland said: “The level of interest and anticipation surrounding the release of the Galaxy Nexus has been fantastic. The collaboration with Google to launch the world’s first smartphone featuring Android Ice Cream Sandwich and a 4.65″ HD Super AMOLED display is evidence of Samsung’s continuing passion for the smartphone market and commitment to delivering innovative devices. We’re delighted to introduce the Galaxy Nexus to the UK and are looking forward to seeing it in the shops on 17th of November.”

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus will be available on the 17th of November 2011 in a range of UK retailers.

So when is it coming to US then? Some previous rumors said it would arrive a week after the European launch, and just before Black Friday, or possibly even after it. That’s quite a little more to wait for it.

The latest Verizon rumors, however, pointed at a November 17th date, too, so if it makes you feel any better you can believe these. I’m not sure it would make sense for Verizon to open up the “pre-orders” in the same day it’s “launching” in UK, though, so I’m thinking it’s really coming to US on November 17th, too.

NEXT: Verizon’s Galaxy Nexus Could Be Available on November 17th

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Sony is one of the biggest consumer electronics companies in the world, and their products are usually pretty high-quality, at least compared to most other manufacturers. So as the tablet market was taking off, they couldn’t be left out of the game, and they decided to enter the market not with one, but two tablets, and try to make them as “different” as possible from their competitors.

I’d say they succeeded doing that, but it remains to be seen if the customers will prefer their tablets over the ones from their competitors. The Sony Tablet S, which is the larger 9.4″ one is set to launch on September 16th, but is already available for pre-order in US, UK and Canada. The prices start at $499 for the 16 GB version in US, and £399 in UK, while the 32 GB one will be $599 in US and £479 in UK.

The Tablet S comes with Honeycomb 3.1, Tegra 2, 1 GB of RAM, 16-32 GB internal storage, 5 MP camera on the back, and VGA camera in front, an infra-red emitter to connect with other devices, DLNA, and a 5000 mAh battery, which seems dangerously small for a 9″-10″ tablet (Galaxy Tab 7.7 has a 5500 mAh battery).

Sony has certainly tried to be innovative with this tablet, so they’ve thought about moving the weight center of the tablet more to the left when you’re holding it with one hand. This is why it’s thicker on one side and thinner on the other. This way, it apparently feels more like a lighter 7″ tablet. The design appears to be detail-oriented as well, while the build of the tablet feels very solid, even though it’s made out of plastic.

One issue that I think everyone has noticed, is that it’s coming with a Tegra 2 processor at the very end of its life cycle. Tegra 3 is supposedly coming out next month, and it was actually planned for release in August. If they actually managed to do that, then Sony would’ve released their Tegra 2 tablet after the quad core Tegra 3 tablets would already be in the market, and selling for the same or lower price.

I’m trying to figure out why Sony keeps doing this, with their phones, too. They probably think of themselves as making higher-quality products than the rest, but instead of pricing them higher, they wait until the end of component’s life cycle to release their own product *for the same price*. This way they get their components cheaper, while they can still make the profit they wanted to make if they priced them higher.

But I’m not totally convinced. I think if they actually chose that “strategy” they’re not living up to their potential. I think the real issue is that they don’t have a product process as efficient as the others. I’m pretty sure that if they worked harder they could offer cutting edge technology in their products, as well, and for similar prices.

But I don’t think that’s even necessary. If they are confident in their product, I’m sure they could price it say $50 more expensive than say Asus (which actually makes pretty high-value products). Maybe even $100 if their product can truly wow people, and is ahead of the others not only in cutting edge technology, but also in several areas. Only companies who don’t create truly exciting products have to fight a bloody price war.

Of course, they would still have to not go over the iPad’s pricing. People see too much “value” associated with iPad, besides its specs, that’s impossible right now to price it over the iPad – no matter what you put in the tablet. At least until the Android tablet ecosystem grows a little more and iPad’s market share drops under 50%, they won’t be able to price their tablets more than iPad, and it will be difficult to price them even the same as iPad.

All that being said, do you like this tablet enough to want to buy it? If not, why not?

NEXT: Sony Tablet S to Be Launched in Canada on September 14

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If you still don’t think Android is the future not only of most high-end smartphones, but also of most low-end ones, where Nokia has historically dominated, then this should throw some cold water on you. A new research shows Android is now on 47% of all new smartphones in UK, where Symbian has only 7.2% left, which is down 19 points from last year’s 26% market share. One fifth of the UK smartphone market, or 70% of Nokia’s market in smartphones gone in one year. Just like that.

Over the years when Nokia started losing market share to Android and iPhone, th argument has always been “but Nokia is still the largest smartphone manufacturer” or that “it still dominates the poor countries”. Nokia have already lost their crown in smartphones last quarter to Apple and Samsung, and they’ve lost the smartphone OS crown with Symbian by the end of last year, when Android first surpassed Symbian. And they are quickly losing their market share in countries where they’ve been huge market leaders, like India.

Since Android clearly dominates smartphones now with about one out of every 2 smartphones being old around the world being an Android smartphone, and since all feature phones are being replaced by smartphones, it’s pretty clear where all this is going for Symbian and Nokia. As smartphones are getting cheaper and cheaper, most people will end up buying an Android smartphone from a company different than Nokia, and instead of Nokia’s less capable feature phones. It’s only a matter of time before Android replaces Symbian at every level.

The fact that Nokia have basically announced the death of Symbian themselves earlier this year because of the deal with Microsoft, the decline of Symbian has actually been accelerated. This has made the company weaker and weaker financially with each passing quarter. They might find out that by the time they’re launching their first WP7 phone, they might not have enough money to push it strongly themselves.

One thing is for sure, even if Nokia succeeds in pushing WP7 to 20% by 2015, as predicted by Gartner (a claim which I find completely bogus and random), they would still own only a part of that, while the other manufacturers like HTC and Samsung will get the rest. So Nokia’s old days of being the largest phone manufacturer, and dominating the market, are not going to come back.

NEXT: Android to face open source competition from Symbian

ANALYST: Symbian and Android to merge. US: Ummm, doubt it. Google’s Android to eclipse Nokia’s Symbian in 2012

BT release Android application

BT have released an Android application (and one for the iPhone, too) which helps users connect to one of the 1.6 million WiFi hotspots around the UK. Back in the early 90′s BT used to be known as British Telecom and now the BT Group ‘is one of the largest telecommunications services companies in the world and has operations in more than 170 countries’. The application for Android provides customers who have the BT Total Broadband service plan automatic connection to any BT OpenZone and BT FON hotspots when in range.

To take advantage of the application you have to log in with your BT username and password. From here, you can set in the application preferences how you would like to the app to behave (i.e. connect automatically). One of the best things about the app is that it offers a mapping service that can direct you to the nearest available hotspot. This information is kept up-to-date every week. Furthermore, every time someone downloads the application BT will donate 50p to charity (up to £10,000).

[Via: Electric Pig]

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