Man gets 7 years for software piracy

The owner of a software piracy Web site has been sentenced to more than seven years in prison--the longest sentence ever handed down for software piracy.

Nathan Peterson, 27, of Los Angeles, sold copyrighted software at a huge discount on his site, iBackups.net, prosecutors said. The FBI began investigating the site in 2003 and shut it down in February 2005.

In other news:
Movies and iTunes: It's showtime
Leak scandal costs HP's Dunn top job
Search comes to mobile phones
News.com Extra: Mystery of Web video-diary deepens
Video: Apple's iTV links televisions, PCs
U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III on Friday ordered Peterson to pay restitution of more than $5.4 million. Peterson pleaded guilty in December in Alexandria, Va., to two counts of copyright infringement for illegally copying and selling more than $20 million in software.

Justice Department and industry officials called the case one of the largest involving Internet software piracy ever prosecuted.

Last month, Ellis sentenced Danny Ferrer, a Florida man who pleaded guilty to copyright charges in connection with multimillion-dollar sales of pirated software, to six years in prison.

Software piracy resulted in a loss of $34 billion worldwide in 2005, a $1.6 billion increase over 2004, according to a study commissioned by the Business Software Alliance.

Google, Microsoft vie for Earth domination

An updated version of Google Earth is to be released on Tuesday night, adding a timescale to the basic version of the Web-based geospatial application.

The feature--in which a slider is used to scroll through time--was previously available only to users of the premium version, Google Earth Pro, and now features a simplified interface.

Michael Jones, the chief technology officer for Google Earth, demonstrated the feature at the Association for Geographic Information event, AGI2006, in London, on Tuesday. Jones showed how scientists, who had tracked the movements of a whale shark using GPS, had then mapped the creature's path using the application.

Business uses include fleet tracking, or mapping the movements of transport infrastructure, according to Google. Jones also described how the new version would enable people to track all of the geostationary satellites orbiting the earth.

More than 30,000 developers around the world are using the Google Earth application programming interface, and there have been 100 million downloads of Google Earth, Google claims.

Google Earth's tendency to use photographs that are often out of date would not diminish the usefulness of the time-tracking functionality, as the basic application was primarily a tool to provide context, Jones explained.

"(The function) allows you to scroll through data layered on top of that," he said on Tuesday. "We're just trying to provide context to understand it."

Google Earth received a major database update at the end of last week, introducing 15-centimeter resolution for the first time to areas such as the Netherlands and Japan.

Microsoft was also represented at the event by Vincent Tao, director of MSN Virtual Earth--the software giant's rival application to Google Earth. Tao highlighted recent improvements made to Virtual Earth, in particular the ability to view certain areas from an oblique "birds-eye view." This addition was made to certain U.K. areas this week, he added.

An angled perspective could provide a more detailed and recognizable view of buildings and monuments than a straight overhead angle. Google's application provides angled views, mainly through users' models of buildings and geographical features.

In other news:
Movies and iTunes: It's showtime
Leak scandal costs HP's Dunn top job
Search comes to mobile phones
News.com Extra: Mystery of Web video-diary deepens
Video: Apple's iTV links televisions, PCs
Microsoft also demonstrated another new feature for Virtual Earth, where a virtual car can be driven through certain U.S. cities. Some car manufacturers had already contacted Microsoft to discuss putting their concept cars into the simulation, Tao said.

"I can bet the owners of (the shops seen as the user drives past) really want to put their logos there," Tao said, adding that the feature provided many opportunities for advertising.

MSN Virtual Earth was also being integrated into Outlook and Windows Live Messenger, said Tao, and users would soon be able to overlay floor plans into the application.

HP chair to step down after leak probe

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Hewlett-Packard Chairwoman Patricia Dunn took the fall Tuesday after admitting she authorized an investigation that relied on "inappropriate techniques" to uncover who was leaking boardroom secrets to the media.



CEO Mark Hurd, who has the respect of Wall Street and is untainted by the investigation at the Palo Alto-based computer and printer maker, will take over, vowing that the probe's methods "have no place in HP." HP's stock rose to a 52-week high.

It was the culmination of a scandal that has rocked Silicon Valley's biggest and oldest technology company, led to investigations by state and federal authorities, and raised questions about one of the most powerful women in corporate America.

Having already concluded that HP's probe broke some California laws, state Attorney General Bill Lockyer indicated for the first time that company insiders are likely to face some criminal charges.

"We currently have sufficient evidence to indict people both within Hewlett-Packard as well as contractors on the outside," Lockyer said in an interview aired late Tuesday on PBS' "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer."

Dunn, who initiated the probe in which private investigators impersonated HP directors and journalists to access their personal phone logs, will remain on the board after giving up the top job on Jan. 18. Hurd will add chairman to his existing positions of chief executive and president, the company announced early Tuesday.

Director George "Jay" Keyworth II, who acknowledged sharing company information with reporters, resigned from the board Tuesday after refusing to do so in May.

Some analysts said Dunn's demotion sent a message to investors that HP was ready to move on, while others said she should have been removed completely.

"She needed to go — she had become a liability to the company whether she liked it or not," said Morningstar analyst Mark Lanyon. "But just removing her from the chairperson role and keeping her on the board is a half-measure at best and probably not appropriate.

"There are still legal matters that could come down on the company," he said, "and the issue is still festering with her there."

Roger Kay, who follows HP as president of the market research firm Endpoint Technologies Associates, had a different take.

"I think the fact that they made the statement that she's going to leave solves most of the problem," he said. "I don't think it's that material precisely when she leaves."

The pressure on Dunn to step down rose sharply when Congress and federal investigators joined the probe of the scandal involving HP's Board of Directors

Pirates a billion dollar treasure

Burbank, California - Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, the swashbuckling blockbuster from Walt Disney has crossed the $1bn mark at the global box office.

Pirates is only the third film to date (behind Titanic and Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King) to achieve this feat.

After ten weeks in US theatres, the Johnny Depp sequel has grossed $416.6m. Internationally, it has reached $587.5m.

"To say we are excited is an understatement. This is truly an historical time for The Walt Disney Studios and a time to celebrate. Pirates continues to perform on all cylinders and this is a real tribute to the remarkable team of Jerry Bruckheimer, Gore Verbinski, Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley, Orlando Bloom, and writers Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio.

"The film's phenomenal success all over the world proves once again that audiences will vote to come back again and again when presented with great entertainment," said Dick Cook, chairperson of The Walt Disney Studios.

Dead Man's Chest will be closely followed by a third Pirates movie due out next May, with Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley and other co-stars on a voyage to rescue Johnny Depp's rakish pirate Captain Jack Sparrow.

How Will Apple’s Marketing Maestro Marry the Computer and the Home TV?

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 10 — Has Apple Computer’s chief executive, Steven P. Jobs, found a way to connect the PC to the TV?
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Apple’s chief, Steven P. Jobs, at a developers’ conference last month.

With an enticing invitation proclaiming “It’s Showtime,” Mr. Jobs last week touched off speculation about how far Apple will go as it takes its next big step into digital video.

On Tuesday, Apple will hold another of Mr. Jobs’s marketing events here to introduce what trade publications and analysts indicate will be his next campaign: an effort to transform the distribution of Hollywood movies as thoroughly as he has revolutionized the recording industry with the iTunes Music Store.

A distribution deal with the Walt Disney Company and sleeker, higher-capacity video iPods are part of the consensus among those who handicap Apple product announcements. But company executives have hinted that Apple has at least one bigger idea on tap.

Mr. Jobs needs one. In his quest to remake Hollywood distribution in the Internet era, his main challenge is one that has bedeviled the personal computer industry. Today, despite many efforts by Microsoft, Intel and a variety of start-up companies to insinuate the computer into home entertainment, almost all movies watched at home use cable, satellite or DVD players, making it possible for Hollywood to control both piracy and pricing.

The computer industry, under the banner of “digital convergence,” has been looking longingly at the American living room for several years. Beginning in 1993, Microsoft tried to rally the cable industry under the banner of Cablesoft, an abortive effort to turn the home cable box into a Microsoft-based PC.

More recently, Microsoft and Intel have invested millions in a slow-growing effort to offer Media Center PC’s that promise a single home entertainment box. Separately, Microsoft has been trying to start a business in Internet-based television technology, intended to arm telephone companies to compete with cable operators. And in January, Intel introduced a microprocessor system called Viiv, designed for PC-based digital entertainment. So far, it has found few backers.

Despite proclaiming that its Macintosh computer is the center of a digital home strategy, Apple has taken only baby steps into the video era, offering iPods that play television videos on tiny screens and a software program called Front Row, largely hidden within the Mac, for managing video collections, music playlists and slide shows.

Those efforts may become more aggressive on Tuesday, but so far Mr. Jobs has kept his strategy well hidden. Much speculation has centered on a living-room-ready version of the company’s least expensive computer, the Mac Mini, a compact desktop model originally positioned as an inexpensive way for PC users to switch to the Macintosh market. A living-room Mini could play DVD’s, download Internet data like digital movies and include a TV tuner.

The downside of such a strategy, of course, is that it would be compared, perhaps unfavorably, with the dozens of similar devices already introduced in attempts to bring the Internet closer to the home television set. That might amount to yet another box in the living room — something Mr. Jobs and his designers choose to avoid.

“Apple is genetically incapable of doing anything that smacks of me-too,” said Mike McGuire, research vice president at the market research firm Gartner.

A more intriguing possibility discussed by former Apple engineers and on rumor sites like AppleInsider.com is that Apple may use wireless technologies like Wi-Fi and ultra-wideband to stream digital content from a Macintosh to the TV. Such a system would allow the video to be played on television screens with the computer’s hand-held Apple remote control.

Such an approach would almost certainly ap

TWO JOKERS

September 11, 2006 -- PRESIDENT Bush showed off his sense of humor this morning on "Today" in an interview with Matt Lauer. The segment, taped Friday, showed Bush entering the Oval Office holding a copy of People magazine opened to the page with a bare-chested Matt Lauer. The president jokes, "Can I have an autograph?" Lauer responds: "Oh, do not start with this. That's just not nice [pointing to the picture]. The amazing thing is they put my head on your body." Bush: "I don't spend that much time at the gym."

NATION HONORS

September 11, 2006 -- President Bush vowed renewed resolve in the war on terror after he and his wife, Laura, solemnly placed wreaths at Ground Zero yesterday - as the city and nation prepared to mark today's somber fifth anniversary of 9/11 with poignant tributes to the thousands lost.

To the strains of bagpipes, the Bushes set floral wreaths adrift in reflecting pools that mark the locations of the north and south towers of the World Trade Center.

They spoke no words at the ceremony, walking hand-in-hand on the floor of the huge pit after a slow procession down the long, flag-lined ramp from the street.

Afterward, the Bushes attended a memorial service at nearby St. Paul's Chapel, a 240-year-old Episcopal church that became a center for weary rescuers in the days after Sept. 11.

Then they stopped by Engine 10, a rebuilt firehouse, to greet the firefighters who lost five brethren on 9/11, and toured the visitor center next door.

At the center, the visibly moved president seemed especially interested in a display containing the helmet and uniform of a fallen firefighter from Engine 10.

"Laura and I approach tomorrow with heavy hearts. It's hard not to think about people who lost their lives," Bush said afterward.

"[Today] is a day of sadness for a lot of people. It's also a day of remembrance. I vowed that I'm never going to forget the lessons of that day."

The exhibits in the center, he said, "reminded me that there's still an enemy out there that would like to inflict the same kind of pain on us again. So [today] is also a day of renewing resolve."

The wreath-laying took place as New Yorkers braced for 9/11's grim anniversary with tears, prayers and tributes.

"To religious fanatics hellbent on killing those who worship diversity, to fundamentalist zealots committed so fervently to hatred, oppression and tyranny, American freedom represents the ultimate threat," Gov. Pataki said.

Accompanying the Bushes at Ground Zero were Pataki, Mayor Bloomberg and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who received roaring cheers as he left the chapel. Also at the Bushes' side was Marine Maj. Mark Thompson, a military aide who helped them lay the wreaths.

In St. Paul's, Bush sat next to Jeanette Vigiano, who lost two sons in the attacks - Joe, a cop, and John, a firefighter.

He gave her a brief kiss and held her hand during the service, ceding the front aisle seat that normally would have been reserved for him to her husband, retired FDNY Capt. John Vigiano.

Sitting next to Laura Bush was retired firefighter Bob Beckwith and his wife, Barbara. Beckwith had stood on the pile of rubble with Bush during his first Ground Zero visit.

On their way in, Bush and his wife also personally greeted Arlene Howard, the mother of 9/11 victim George Howard, a New York Port Authority cop, with a kiss on the cheek. The mom had given Bush her son's badge when the pair met in 2001, and the president said he keeps it as a constant reminder of the attacks.

Later, during his impromptu visit at Engine 10, Bush shook hands with firefighters.

"He said we will never forget and we still have a job to do in Iraq," said Lt. Anthony Matteo, 40.

Today, the president is scheduled to have breakfast with firefighters and cops at a Lower East Side firehouse.

Then, he is set to travel to Shanksville, Pa., and the Pentagon - where others died in 9/11 plane attacks - before addressing the American people tonight.

Punk picked wrong gran!

A pistol-packing Harlem granny turned the tables on a robber yesterday, busting out her registered .357 magnum and shooting the mugger in the elbow - while riding in her motorized scooter, cops said.

Feisty Margaret Johnson, 57, who has a dislocated hip and a herniated disk, was heading out for target practice about 3 p.m. when a career criminal came up behind her and went for her necklaces, sources said.

"There's not much to it," she said later. "Somebody tried to mug me, and I shot him."

The thief "walked past her, and came around and choked her," said Johnson's pal, Lynnell Bunce, 40. "He was going for her jewelry, and he got it. He didn't say anything - until she shot him."

Then the man cursed and fled from the scene outside 470 Lenox Ave., where the victim has lived for decades, Bunce said.

"I'm very tired. It was very scary," Johnson said as she later entered her building in her three-wheeled scooter with scratches on her neck and left hand. "I've had a very long day."

Police followed the trail of the wounded man's blood to a McDonald's restaurant not far from Johnson's building and arrested 45-year-old Deron Johnson, an ex-con with nine robbery arrests who is no relation to the victim, sources said.

He was in stable condition at Harlem Hospital last night, and charges were pending against him. The jewelry was recovered, officials said.

Margaret Johnson has a premises permit for the gun, a police source said, meaning she is allowed to keep the pistol in her home and transport it to a firing range.

Bunce said her friend, who has a grown son and at least one grandchild, got the permit when she was a bus driver for the city.

Neighbors said Johnson, a granddaughter of a famed Harlem gangster, the late Ellsworth (Bumpy) Johnson, is a well-known and well-liked woman.

"Everyone loves Margaret," Bunce said. "Margaret is funny. She's like clockwork. She's lived here forever, and she walks her dog four times a day and says hello to everybody."

"She's spunky," said Toi Frederick, 26, a lawyer who lives in the same building. "I wouldn't think she would be someone who would just lay down and give up her stuff."

MARIA ROLLS PAST AMELIE

September 9, 2006 -- Two bagels never looked so good.

Maria Sharapova advanced to her first U.S. Open Final, routing No. 1 ranked Amelie Mauresmo in yesterday's semis by posting book-ending 6-0 sets during a breakthrough, three-set triumph.

And despite the 6-0, 4-6, 6-0 rout, Sharapova is hungry for more.

"I'm not done yet," the 6-foot-2 blonde told the Ashe Stadium crowd.

Tonight's prime-time women's final is a delectable matchup, pitting the tour's glamour girl with the smoldering forehand/looks against the blue-collar Belgian baseliner and 2003 Open champion, Justine Henin-Hardenne. It will be ferocious forehand vs. ferocious forehand.

In the second set, a fan yelled out, "You're so pretty," in reference to Sharapova's popular new commercial, and Sharapova promptly bashed a swinging volley winner.

In posting her first victory ever against the French woman, Sharapova clobbered Mauresmo in the first and third sets in posting as lopsided a victory as a three-setter allows. Mauresmo notched just seven points in the third set.

Sharapova was 0-4 vs. Mauresmo and is 1-4 vs. Henin-Hardenne, losing the last four meetings.

Henin-Hardenne survived a horrid first set in outlasting up-and-comer Jelena Jankovic in a three-set win.

"I had a terrible record vs. Amelie and I have a terrible record against Justine," Sharapova said. "I'm hoping I can turn that around [tonight]."

Sharapova supports the women's final under the stars. She gets another opportunity to wear that black Audrey Hepburn dress, with the collared crystals that's drawn raves.

"The Open is all about the night matches," Sharapova said. "I think it's very cool."

There's a bit of jealousy among the women's tour at the attention and flood of endorsements Sharapova, 19, has received despite winning just one Grand Slam title. Since winning the 2004 Wimbledon, she hadn't been past a Grand Slam semifinal until yesterday.

It was only appropriate supermodel Heidi Klum was in attendance. In what sounded like a needle, Henin-Hardenne said of Miss Madison Avenue, "She's still looking for her second Grand-Slam title. She will have a lot of motivation."

"I didn't feel expectations from the outside world, more so from myself," Sharapova countered of the perception she hadn't lived up to the hype. "I won a Grand Slam, beat top players. After the first couple of months, I felt I needed to win every single match. I had to step back and say it's not going to happen."

Mauresmo, the Australian and Wimbledon champion, was stunningly tight at the outset, hitting stuff long or wide, unable to control the wind. She got broken three times, mis-hitting an inordinate number of balls. The first set was over in 24 minutes.

"I thought I played really smart," Sharapova said. "I wasn't making errors at the wrong time. I put pressure on her. I took my chances. It was very important to start well and I did."

Mauresmo settled down in the second set, breaking Sharapova at 5-4 to close the set, as the decibel levels of Sharapova's grunts soared to a crescendo, prompting giggling from the crowd.

"Even when I won the second, I didn't feel things were going the way I want to," Mauresmo said.

Mauresmo melted down again. To start the third, she banged two consecutive forehands into the net, getting broken in the first game and the second collapse was on.

Smelling blood, Sharapova broke her again to go up 3-0. Mauresmo sliced an awful backhand drop shot into the net and then outlasted Mauresmo on a marathon baseline rally to secure the game. Sharapova broke Mauresmo at love to go up 5-0 with a bullet backhand down the line, and moments later Sharapova lifted her arms in joy.

WE HEAR . . .

September 9, 2006 -- THAT Norah Jones will perform at the Rainforest Action Network benefit tonight at the Plumm with special guest Whoopi Goldberg . . . THAT among the former staffers rounded up to support record mogul Andre Harrell on Oct. 21, when he hosts a Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund benefit at Hammerstein Ballroom, is his most famous ex-intern, Sean Combs . . . THAT the modern Chelsea loft of "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" food/wine guru Ted Allen and interior designer Barry Rice is featured in Elle Décor, which has Jimmy Choo shoe tycoon Tamara Mellon on the cover.

SHY PROPRIETOR

September 9, 2006 -- ELAINE Kaufman isn't ready for her close-up. The legendary saloonkeeper's Second Avenue watering hole was a hangout of real-life FBI agent John O'Neill, an integral part of ABC's embattled flick "The Path to 9/11." It turns out the producers asked Kaufman, who once appeared as herself in "Diary of a Mad Housewife," to be in a scene in which O'Neill comes in for dinner. But she respectfully declined - sparing her any association with the stink being raised over the movie's depiction of Bill Clinton.

IBM to Build World’s First Cell Broadband Engine Based Supercomputer

The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has selected IBM to design and build the world’s first supercomputer to harness the immense power of the Cell Broadband Engine (Cell B.E.) processor aiming to produce a machine capable of a sustained speed of up to 1,000 trillion calculations per second, or one petaflop.

The ’hybrid’ supercomputer, codenamed Roadrunner, will be installed at DOE’s Los Alamos National Laboratory. In a first-of-a-kind design, Cell B.E. chips - originally designed for video game platforms - will work in conjunction with systems based on x86 processors from Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD).

Designed specifically to handle a broad spectrum of scientific and commercial applications, the supercomputer design will include new, highly sophisticated software to orchestrate over 16,000 AMD Opteron™ processor cores and over 16,000 Cell B.E. processors in tackling some of the most challenging problems in computing today. The revolutionary supercomputer will be capable of a peak performance of over 1.6 petaflops (or 1.6 thousand trillion calculations per second).

The machine is to be built entirely from commercially available hardware and based on the Linux® operating system. IBM System x 3755 servers based on AMD Opteron technology will be deployed in conjunction with IBM BladeCenter H systems with Cell B.E. technology. Each system used is designed specifically for high performance implementations.

Designed also with space and power consumption issues in mind, the system will employ advanced cooling and power management technologies and will occupy only 12,000 square feet of floor space, or approximately the size of three basketball courts.

Roadrunner’s hybrid design will allow the system to segment complex mathematical equations, routing each segment to the part of the system that can most efficiently handle it. Typical compute processes, file IO, and communication activity will be handled by AMD Opteron processors while more complex and repetitive elements -- ones that traditionally consume the majority of supercomputer resources -- will be directed to the more than 16,000 Cell B.E. processors. Designed originally for gaming platforms, where intense graphics and real-time responsiveness are key, the Cell B.E. processor is ideal to speed Roadrunner through intense mathematical problems.

IBM will begin shipping the new supercomputer to the DOE facility at the Los Alamos National Laboratory later this year, with completion of the installation and acceptance anticipated in 2008.

Based on the Power Architecture, the Cell B.E. processor was developed in collaboration with IBM, Sony Corporation, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (Sony and Sony Computer Entertainment collectively referred to as Sony Group), and Toshiba Corporation.

RIM hoping multimedia BlackBerry bears fruit

Since their inception, BlackBerrys have been a lot like their users: all business.

Aside from one video game included with the popular, handheld device, the various BlackBerrys from Research in Motion were mobile e-mailing workhorses: no camera, no MP3 player, not much style.

That is until today. Research in Motion is unveiling its first multimedia phone dubbed the BlackBerry Pearl, a sleek device that sports the company's first camera and MP3 player.

The phone, the first BlackBerry to look like the latest offerings from Motorola, Nokia and Samsung, is a huge leap for the company that's made its name on its business reputation. The device goes on sale Tuesday exclusively through T-Mobile and is priced at $199 with a two-year service contract.

Executives believe the Pearl can ignite sales for the Ontario company and expand its customers beyond its current 5.5 million largely corporate users. The release comes at a pivotal time, as RIM continues to lose market share in the smart-phone space to newcomers like Motorola's stylish Q and the increasingly robust Palm Treo.

"There will naturally be some existing users who will upgrade to the Pearl," said Jim Balsillie, RIM's co-chief executive and chairman. "But there will be totally new users who will say, 'This is for me. I wasn't in the market for a BlackBerry, but I am now.' "

A different look

Balsillie said RIM had set out to update its line and add more media capabilities, more function and design to future phones. It turns out they were able to pack it all into one device about the size of a Motorola SLVR.

The look of the phone is decidedly un-BlackBerry. Previous BlackBerry models were bulky and conspicuous. Even the 7100 line of phones, the first to take more of a bar-shape, were still much larger than most phones on the market. The Pearl sports a clean black-and-silver design and, perhaps most shocking for diehard BlackBerry users, no thumb wheel. The wheel has been replaced by a white trackball navigation tool, the inspiration for its name.

But inside, the phone sports a number of firsts for RIM. The Pearl includes a 1.3-megapixel camera with flash and zoom capabilities, an MP3 and video player, a microSD memory slot and voice dialing. They complement the traditional strength of BlackBerrys: e-mailing and text messaging. The phone, like BlackBerry's 7100 line, does not have a full QWERTY keyboard, but instead relies on a system called SureType, which places two letters on each button and uses predictive technology to spell out words. The Pearl syncs easily with Microsoft Outlook without the need of an installed BlackBerry Enterprise Server at the office. It also provides "push" e-mail access to personal accounts such as Yahoo.

Balsillie says the phone can be a boon for phone carriers that are looking to encourage more data use by their customers. He said existing multimedia phones have not done a good enough job providing a dynamic experience, something the Pearl can help overcome.

Balsillie said this is just the start of RIM's move into consumer phones. The company plans to release at least a couple of new consumer-oriented phones by early next year. He declined to say when the Pearl will be available for other carriers.

Analysts are generally impressed with the new phone and expect it to do brisk business for RIM.

"I think this is big news for BlackBerry, it's a big first step," said Ellen Daley, vice president and research director for Forrester Research. "I think this could be people's first BlackBerry."

Expanding its market

Ken Dulaney, vice president of mobile computing at Gartner Research, said the Pearl is a necessary next step for RIM. The company risked being relegated to the sidelines if it failed to expand its portfolio and appeal to the mass market.

"RIM has to win on hardware," Dulaney said. "They have the potential to become another Nokia but that's a long way off. But to do that, they have to come downstream with more-fashionable models. They have to get to the consumer and presumer (those who have not bought similar products) level. That's where the hundreds of millions of customers are."

Dulaney said the market is moving toward mobile e-mail and phones will eventually all be equipped with that capability. He said while there may be only 15 million phones equipped with mobile e-mail, that number should jump to 2 billion in 10 years.

He said the Pearl, while eye-catching and efficient, still faces challenges including identifying and effecting branding strategy and overcoming a narrow release on T-Mobile, the smallest of the big four wireless carriers. And he said the price could be a hindrance as well.

"One-hundred and ninety-nine dollars? That's still a high price when a lot of phones are free," Dulaney said.

Balsillie said he's confident the Pearl will overcome any challenges. He said the company is ready to take its signature mobile e-mail to the masses and he believes the Pearl will help win converts.

"I think that's the part that will pleasantly surprise people about the Pearl," said Balsillie. "They'll say, 'I never thought I'd be e-mailing and browsing and doing all these things on a mobile phone.' "

Sharon Stone for Oscar nod !!!

SHARON STONE, who should be a shoo-in for an Oscar nod for the upcoming "Bobby," has been chosen as Badgley Mischka's new advertising icon. The ads begin appearing next month and show Stone at her glamorous best, a nice contrast to the unforgiving camerawork in "Bobby."

Shakira

ANAND Jon shows his fash ions tomorrow at the Metro politan Pavilion. Born in India, raised in mystic Hindu surroundings, having a Jewish grandma, brought up Christian, deep into yoga, living in New York, partnering with his mother in business, fund-raising for the sanctuary at Horseshoe Creek Wildlife, working on a reality show with Michelle Rodriguez of "Lost" fame, now making a movie with producer Deepak Nayar, designing for names like Halle Berry, Daisy Fuentes, singer Shakira, doing the shirts for Bruce Springsteen's tour, he arrived late for our interview, brought a dozen people to stand around staring, had no lights on, never invited me to sit, said his logo is a serpent "because it means hidden knowledge" and wore a black T-shirt that read "Star Whores" when we met. OK?

SEXPOT BLAMES

THE rest of the world mourned in 1995 when Christopher Reeve was paralyzed in a horse-jumping mishap, but "Nip/ Tuck" sex bomb Kelly Carlson figured he had it coming. "OK, this is going to offend people," Carlson told Steppin Out's Chaunce Hayden. "I love Christopher Reeve . . . But it was more his fault. When you're jumping a horse, 99.9 per cent of the time it's your fault . . . You never take a horse over a fence unless your horse is totally trained to do it, and you have a relationship with the horse. It's all about trust . . . You have to have your hip bone and heel bone in a straight line up and down. If you don't, you'll go over the horse's head . . . Chris probably wasn't sitting right in the saddle. That's the only reason why you fall off." Reeve died two years ago of complications from being paralyzed from the neck down. His wife, Dana, a non-smoker, died last year of lung cancer.

BEAUTY OVERLOAD

September 8, 2006 -- IT was babe-lock at P.M. Lounge the other night around the banquette where funny brothers Damon, Marlin and Shawn Wayans were ensconced. Nearby, rub le-rich Anna Anisimova was redefining the meaning of "conspicuous consumption." Ob serving it all were actor Topher Grace and Fergie with her Black Eyed Peas. In a back corner, P.M.'s chief model wrangler Francois was celebrating completion of his sexy CD, "The Way." The velvet-voiced crooner is being called Congo's answer to Marvin Gaye.

Brando son toasts Post

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Christian Brando is tired of getting a bum rap.

He's fuming about a New York Post Page Six hatchet job that called him a "creepy killer" and accused him of trying to sell the personal address book of his late father, legendary actor Marlon Brando, in order to make a quick buck.

"I didn't do it! I'm not a seedy creep!" said Christian Brando, 48.

In an exclusive interview with the Daily News, the Oscar winner's eldest son swore he had nothing to do with pilfering or hawking the celeb-packed roster, which was briefly offered on eBay but quickly pulled when lawyers for "The Godfather" star's estate reported it stolen in June.

"Why would I do that? Why does everyone blame me for all this s--t?" said Brando, the family black sheep who did six years in prison for fatally shooting his half-sister Cheyenne's boyfriend Dag Drollet in 1990.

"I didn't get away with anything! I did my time," he said.

"There are people in the media that are gonna make up anything about me. They hit me over and over. ... I can't help the media," he griped.

"Everyone thinks we got millions of dollars. When my father died he left a lot of taxes," said Brando, who is one of at least nine children the star had with three wives and various lovers.

Brando's girlfriend Donna Geon backed up his assertion. "Christian was very upset about the death of his dad when we went there [to Marlon's former Mulholland Drive home this year]. He didn't take the phone book," said Geon, who admitted they did grab "some dishes."

Christian Brando also railed that Robert Blake's lawyers tried to blame him for the 2001 murder of the former "Baretta" star's wife, Bonny Lee Bakley.

Brando had a fling with Bakley, who initially said her baby was Brando's. A DNA test proved Blake was the father of baby Rose.

"When Blake's wife was murdered, I was under 9 tons of logging truck" in Washington State, "but they tried to pin that on me," Brando fumed.

L.A. County prosecutors said Brando had an "airtight" alibi for the time of Bakley's shooting death. Blake was acquitted of murder in 2005.

Battle over Butter's bread

A Manhattan nightclub owner is suing his partners for allegedly getting fat on Butter - and slicing him out of the profits.

In a pair of Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuits, Alireza Ghassemi charged that he and investors from Bala Associates were "robbed" of ownership shares at the celebrity hot spot that instead were sold off to the likes of hip-hop mogul Damon Dash and supermodel Carmen Kass.

The other partners in the sleek Lafayette St. lounge and restaurant - noted ladies' men Richie Akiva and Scott Sartiano - are accused of skimming profits while wining and dining their famous friends at Butter.

"Akiva and Sartiano brought this on to themselves," said Seth Redniss, an attorney for Ghassemi.

The $7.5 million lawsuit said that Butter - which attracts bold-faced names like Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean (Diddy) Combs and the Olsen twins - has generated millions in profits since opening in April 2002. It added that none of that money has found its way back to the investors at Bala, who the suit says put up $1.75 million to open the place.

"We've had no explanation for any of these things," Redniss said.

Sartiano, who is dating "Sopranos" star Jamie-Lynn Sigler, has previously been linked to Ashley Olsen and singer Ashlee Simpson. Akiva has squired starlet Lindsay Lohan, Mary-Kate Olsen and Kass, a chess-playing stunner from Estonia.

Book: Paris' granny was a Mafia wife

Paris Hilton is a singer, actress, accidental porn star - and, we now learn, a bit of a Mafia princess.

The hotel heiress' parents almost didn't get married because her maternal grandmother was married to a mobster, a new book reveals.

Jerry Oppenheimer reports in "House of Hilton" that Kathy Richards - known as "Big Kathy" -was hitched to a notorious gangland figure when her daughter, "Little Kathy," fell in love with Paris' dad, Rick Hilton.

Oppenheimer, whose Crown book comes out in November, is withholding the mob guy's name for now. But he reports that federal prosecutors linked him to Mafia families in New York, Philadelphia, Detroit and Chicago.

"Big Kathy used to boast to friends … that 'if you ever need someone taken care of,' her husband had the muscle to handle it."

But Big Kathy got nervous when her daughter hooked up with Rick. "I can't have the Hiltons finding out what [my husband] does," she told a friend.

Big Kathy promptly divorced the potential wedding-spoiler, one of four husbands she collected. The gentleman later died of a heart attack - just before he was due to serve 15 years for counterfeiting, money-laundering and other charges.

Even so, Mama Richards was banned from the Hilton estate in Los Angeles unless the family patriarch, Barron Hilton, was out of town, according to Oppenheimer. "Barron couldn't stand being around Kathy's mother," a source told Oppenheimer. "He used to call her 'The Madam' - as in bawdy house madam."

Word is her mobster gave Big Kathy the same big honking diamond ring that he'd given earlier molls. "He'd always get it back from them," a source tells us. "But he never got it back from Big Kathy."