Gadgets: Trimble applications for your Blackberry

By GREGG ELLMAN

McClatchy Newspapers

Trimble Outdoors applications are now available for CDMA-based GPS-equipped BlackBerry smart phones.

This gives GPS phones the ability to find directions. It also makes it ideal for on-the-go workout and outdoor enthusiasts to track workouts and then share the experiences with others.

Once installed, the Trimble software consists of three applications; AllSport GPA, Geocache Navigator and the Trimble Outdoors applications.

Outdoor fitness types will love the AllSport feature. Users who bike, hike or run can track their performance on the device and then save the routes and program for future use with a Web component.

With the stored content, users can monitor progress of a particular workout comparing specific statistics over time to gauge the progress.

This allows users to take the activity the device recorded and then download it over Google Earth and Google Maps or to share with others or save for future use.

Users will be able to geocache with the Geocache Navigator.

T is a treasure hunt game in where users use a GPS navigation system to hide and seek containers (called geocaches) containing small treasures containing little value.

The application will connect users to a worldwide geocache database, helping locate searches around a specific area. Users can also narrow a search to a specific ZIP code or intersection.

With Trimble Outdoors, users planning outdoor activities use the GPS enabled date on their phone for creating and navigation trips which can then be shared online. A digital compass is included in the application displaying the user's coordinates and speed.

The applications work on Sprint/Nextel, BlackBerry and also select Nokia S60 phones.

Sprint/Nextel pricing has special GPS pack available which includes AllSport GPS, Trimble Outdoors and Geocache Navigator for $6.99/month.

On a BlackBerry, individual applications cost $5.99 each per month or $39.99 per year.

Information: www.trimbleoutdoors.com

Lowepro has some new storage solutions for digital imaging and technology products.

The Flipside 200 and 300 (bigger) series camera backpacks, give users a secure and comfortable carrying option for a digital SLR camera with a lens attached along with additional lenses and accessories.

Both of the backpacks feature a back entry to give the user easy access to all areas of the main compartment where a digital SLR and multiple lenses or accessories can be stored.

Outer storage panels are also included to centralize accessories and gear along with a hideaway tripod holder to carry a compact tripod or monopod.

A removable accessory pouch allows storage for cables, chargers, and other items when needed.

The water-resistant backpacks have a detachable waist belt plus an adjustable sternum strap.

The Flipside bags ($79.99 - $99.99) are available in black, arctic blue/black and red/black.

The Fastpack line of backpacks has a triple compartment to hold a digital SLR camera, extra lenses or accessories, a laptop and other gear.

Access to the equipment is easy with a 180-degree access panel, along with adjustable dividers allowing each bag to be customized by its owner for your specific gear.

The Fastpack line has four models, with each being able to hold a different amount of equipment along with laptops up to a 17" widescreen.

They are available in black, arctic blue and red in prices ranging from $74.99 to $149.99.

Photographers carrying the simple point and shoot cameras can choose from the Lowepro Spectrum series.

These feature a main single compartment having a padded lining along with a zippered accessory compartment

They are available in three sizes; each holds a different size of today's compact digital cameras and priced $12.99 to $14.99.

Available colors are black and four two-toned color schemes including arctic blue/polar, parsley/leaf, red/chile and espresso/cocoa.

Information: www.lowepro.com

OAP duo accused of befriending, supporting, and then murdering tramps in astonishing plot to collect insurance

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Olga Rutterschmidt, 75, and Helen Golay, 77, are accused of befriending two homeless men, taking out insurance policies on their lives, then drugging them and running them over in a car bought especially for that purpose to collect nearly £1.5 million in insurance.

Rutterschmidt and Golay each have pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and two counts of conspiracy to commit murder for financial gain in the deaths of 73-year-old Paul Vados in 1999 and 51-year-old Kenneth McDavid in 2005.

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Olga Rutterschmidt, 75, left, and Helen Golay, 77, are accused of an astonishing plot to kill homeless men for insurance

"It's your fault," Olga Rutterschmidt, 75, told co-defendant Helen Golay, 77, in an FBI tape played for the jury. "You can't have that many insurers. ... You were greedy. That's the problem."

Defence attorneys deferred their opening statements until the prosecution side of the case concludes.

"We have evidence to show she's not guilty," Golay's attorney, Roger Jon Diamond, said in an interview Monday. "They have over 100 witnesses but they have no eyewitness, no confession. It's all circumstantial."

The prosecutor told the jury the women found the men in a homeless shelter at a Hollywood church, set them up in apartments and supported them for two years, all the while taking out multiple life insurance policies on them.

Do said the women ultimately profited off the deaths with $2.8 million (£1.4million) and were still trying to collect on policies when they were arrested.

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Cary Grant's character confronts his two murderous aunts in 'Arsenic and Old Lace'

The jury also was shown pictures of the victims' bodies, receipts for rent, a car that has been linked to one of the killings and a rubber stamp with one victim's signature that was allegedly used to sign insurance policies.

The case began in 2006 in federal court with a grand jury indicting the women on nine counts each of mail fraud and related charges for making false insurance claims. But when further evidence developed in the suspected hit-and-run scheme, the case was transferred to Los Angeles County Superior Court, and murder charges were filed.

The prosecutor said the women spent about $64,000 for insurance policy premiums and to support the men. They took out a total of $5.7 million in insurance policies, she said.

"After putting all that money into Mr. McDavid, his life was theirs," Do said.

She showed jurors a photo of the palm-shaded Hollywood building where Golay and Rutterschmidt rented a studio apartment for McDavid at $875 a month and the rental checks they signed.

Do said that the women took him food and closely monitored his life but that the plot almost soured when McDavid invited four or five other homeless people to move in with him. When the women discovered it, she said, they brought police to evict the others and hired armed security guards to sit outside the apartment. The guards were expected to testify.

Do said each man was kept by the women for two years, the length of time that would make their insurance policies uncontestable, then killed them. She said they were confident of getting away with the McDavid murder because they had killed Vados five years earlier.

On June 21, 2005, she said, Golay "and possibly others" ran over McDavid in an alley. Golay then called for a tow because the car had problems, Do said.

The tow truck driver is to testify that it was taken to Golay's home. Later, it was abandoned in Hollywood and investigators found McDavid's DNA on its undercarriage.

Do said Golay went to the coroner's office, claimed McDavid's body as a relative and had it cremated.

The first two witnesses were men who found McDavid's body and called police. There are no eyewitnesses to the death.

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