Al Qaeda one up on Las Vegas Tech Show

The highest of high technology was showcased at the International Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas last week. Among big tech changes coming your way, the ability to watch Digital TV programs on your cell phone, lap top--or car navigation system--while driving. If the lady stopped next to you at the red light stays kaput when the light turns green, she’s likely emerged in the Oprah Winfrey Show. Within a week of the Las Vegas Tech Show, came the announcement that Oprah is launching her own network.

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Not leaving home without your boob tube and watching your favourite shows on your car navigation system while driving, comes with just one condition, of course: You cannot drive faster than 90 KPH (56 MPH). Wait until Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) boss Julian Fantino and cops in other jurisdictions catch wind of this: The first time in road history that people will want to drive slower. So many SUV drivers would take their foot off the gas pedal so they don’t have to miss Jerry Springer re-runs. “Of course boob-tube-watching drivers will be running over little old ladies and babies, but at least they won’t be speeding when they do it,” laments Mark Smyth in a letter to Canada Free Press (CFP). “It could reduce American oil consumption significantly.” The ability to watch digital TV programs on your cell phone, laptop or car navigation system is available on the market, courtesy of LG Electronics Inc., South Korea’s second-largest electronics maker. “The Mobile Pedestrian Handheld technology will be demonstrated at the Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas tomorrow, Kim Gyeong Whan, a spokesman at Seoul-based LG, said today by telephone.” (Bloomberg.com, Jan. 7, 2008). “Devices equipped with MPH chips can display live TV broadcasts in cars traveling as fast as 90 kilometers (56 miles) per hour, according to LG.” The technology is cheaper to adopt than rival systems because it lets stations use existing airwaves, LG said. The company estimates the North American mobile TV market will expand 33 percent to $3.2 billion next year after growing 50 percent in 2008. Broadcasters will convert to digital transmissions by February 2009. LG, which invested about 7 billion won ($7.5 million) since 2006 to develop the technology, said MPH may spur sales of mobile phones, car-navigation systems, notebook computers and receiver chips if MPH is chosen as a standard for mobile TV in the U.S. MPH should be available sometime next year, LG Electronics Chief Technology Officer Woo Paik said. “National deployment can be done instantaneously,” because the technology uses existing airwaves, Paik said in an interview. LG demonstrated MPH to U.S. broadcasters last April and has worked with Harris Corp., the biggest U.S. maker of TV transmitters, to refine the technology. Verizon Wireless, the second-biggest mobile-phone carrier in the U.S. already offers video on phones through its Vcast service. The Consumer Electronics Show, which has been introducing latest technology trends since 1967, has in past years included the camcorder, CD player, Microsoft Corp’s Xbox video-game system and Internet TV among others. This year they were left behind in the technological dust by the terrorist group Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda video messages of Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri can now be downloaded to cell phones, the terror network announced two days ahead of the Las Vegas Tech Show as part of its ongoing attempts to extend its influences. The announcement was posted by al Qaeda’s media wing, al-Sahab, on websites commonly used by Islamic militants. By the following day, eight previously recorded videos were made available, including a recent tribute to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the former al Qaeda leader in Iraq killed by U.S. forces in Iraq in June 2006. In a written message introducing the cell phone videos, al-Zawahiri, al Quaeda’s No. 2 figure, asked followers to spread the terror group’s messages. “I asked God for the men of jihadi media to spread the message of Islam and monotheism to the world and spread real awareness to the people of the nations,” al-Zawahiri said. “The terror network has been growing more sophisticated in targeting international audiences. Videos are always subtitled in English, and messages this year from bin Laden and al-Zawahiri focusing on Pakistan and Afghanistan have been dubbed in the local languages, Urdu and Pashtu.” (Fox News, Jan. 8, 2008). “In December, al Qaeda invited journalists to send questions to al-Zawahiri. The invitation was the first time the media-savvy al-Qaeda offered outsiders to “interview” one of its leaders since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.” Meanwhile, some folks are jut too busy to tool around town watching Oprah on their car navigation systems.