Johnston Press websites start charging for news
One of the UK's biggest newspaper firms is starting to limit access to online content from six of its titles. The Johnston Press websites will either ask users to pay £5 for a three-month subscription to read the full articles or direct them to buy the newspapers. English sites in the pilot scheme are those of the Worksop Guardian, the Ripley & Heanor News, the Whitby Gazette and Northumberland Gazette. In Scotland, the Carrick Gazette and Southern Reporter are taking part.
BBC News

Lawyers target thousands of 'illegal' file-sharers
Around 15,000 suspected pirates may soon get legal letters accusing them of illegally sharing movies and games. ACS:Law plans to send notes to the accused in the new year offering a chance to settle out of court for "several hundreds of pounds". A lawyer who has defended people who have received similar letters described it as a "scattergun approach" that would catch "innocent people". ACS:Law said it was "unaware" of anyone who had been wrongly sent a letter.
BBC News

SAP KPI project leaders resign
SAP’s attempts to make its Enterprise Support package more attractive to customers hit a hurdle on Friday as two user group members leading the project resigned, according to reports. The business software giant had come under pressure from customers after changes to its software support program lead to significant price hikes and a one-size-fits-all package for which many would be paying for services they would not need. After meeting with its user groups, the firm decided to set up key performance indicators (KPIs) jointly agreed by the SAP User Group Executive Network (Sugen) to monitor SAP Enterprise Support. If the KPIs are met then the price increases can go ahead and if not, the idea is that the package will be halted.
V3

UK Oracle users support Sun buy
The UK Oracle User Group said today that it supports the database giant's acquisition of Sun Microsystems. European anti-trust regulators are still holding up the $7.4bn (£4.5bn) deal, citing fears about the dominance it will give Oracle in the market. But the vendor's user group is putting forward the benefits. The European Union's principal objection is that Oracle is the largest proprietary database vendor in the market, and will acquire the owner of MySQL, which is the most popular open-source database on the market.
V3

Europe's data protection laws to be rewritten
Viviane Reding, the European Commissioner who for the past five years has championed consumer rights in the telecommunications arena, is to re-write the European Union's 15-year-old data protection laws. Reding is famous for slashing the cost of roaming charges that mobile phone operators impose on subscribers who use their mobile phones abroad. But her most important achievement was to re-write Europe's telecom laws. The so-called telecom package of laws was finally adopted last week after two years of often tortuous negotiations.
Techworld

Mac Mini tops energy-saving league
Apple's Mac Mini might be one of the more expensive mini-PCs on the market but consumers will claw back some of that in cheaper running costs, new figures from the sust-it.net energy website have suggested. Not surprisingly, small form factor and ‘net-top' PCs dominate the energy efficiency list, with only one conventional desktop making it into the top 26 places. Apple claimed the top four places for its Mac Minis, with the best system being the entry-level Core 2 Duo-based model, quoted as using 12.6 watts while turned on but not under load, or 1.71 watts in sleep mode.
Techworld

Android gets Sidebar content recommendation app
US firm Sidebar has launched its Android application, which offers personalised recommendations of other apps and content to users on a daily basis. It gets users to enter their details and interests, then serves up to 12 recommendations a day, including other Android apps but also videos, games, music, ringtones, podcasts and news stories. The company says the app will get smarter over time, as it learns the user's preferences. They can give recommendations they don't like the thumbs down, to help in that process.
Mobile Entertainment

Samsung beats 2009 mobiles target
Samsung has exceeded its target for mobile phone sales in 2009, with the electronics giant breaking its self-imposed 200 million handset goal. Samsung is the second biggest seller in the mobile phone world, and after narrowly missing out on the 200 million mark in 2008, it was confident of breaking it this year. And that confidence was not misplaced, with the company now stating that it has surpassed its target, in a big year for the mobile phone.
Techradar

Still no BBC deal on Xbox Live iPlayer
Xbox 360 owners who are also fans of the BBC iPlayer are in for yet more disappointment, after it emerged the media platform won't be coming to Microsoft gaming hardware anytime soon. The iPlayer channel, which is already available to PS3 and Wii users, is hitting a brick wall with the Xbox because Microsoft apparently wants to put it behind a pay wall – something the BBC charter specifically prohibits for UK viewers.
Techradar

Carphone reports revenue surge
Carphone Warehouse has reported a 13 per cent year on year growth in revenue to £789m for the six months ending on 30 September. The growth represented performance across the company’s two main arms of business – broadband and retail. Carphone Warehouse chief financial officer, Roger Taylor, said the independent retailer has had a ‘very strong start to the year,’ adding that ‘revenue growth has been slightly ahead of expectations’. The company is also on track to open its ‘Big Box’ stores in Spring 2010.
Mobile