Misplaced Pages

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106-447: The flagship channel airs non-fiction television programs produced by National Geographic and other production companies. Like History (which is 50% owned by Disney through A&E Networks ) and Discovery Channel , the channel features documentaries with factual content involving nature , science, culture, and history, plus some reality and pseudo-scientific entertainment programming. Its primary sister network worldwide, including

212-492: A Canadian version of H2 soon after. On October 21, 2014, Corus Entertainment reached an agreement to acquire Canadian French -language rights to History programming for its own channel, Historia . On March 9, 2015, the network was relaunched under History's logo and branding, although the network still carries the Historia name. Historia was previously owned as a joint venture between Shaw and Astral Media , which made it

318-411: A gyroscope , an accelerometer , and more ), and support diverse wireless communication protocols (such as LTE , 5G NR , Wi-Fi , Bluetooth , and satellite navigation ). In the mid-2020s, smartphone manufacturers have begun to integrate satellite messaging connectivity and satellite emergency services into devices for use in remote regions where there is no reliable cellular network . Following

424-653: A joint venture between Hearst Communications and The Walt Disney Company 's General Entertainment Content Division. The network was originally focused on history-based, social/science documentaries as well as the news. During the late 2000s, the History Channel pivoted into reality television programming. In addition to this change in format, the network has been criticized by many scientists, historians, and skeptics for broadcasting pseudo-documentaries and pseudoscientific , unsubstantiated, sensational investigative programming. As of November 2023 , History

530-539: A touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing , email , and social media , as well as multimedia playback and streaming . Smartphones have built-in cameras , GPS navigation , and support for various communication methods, including voice calls, text messaging , and internet-based messaging apps. Smartphones are distinguished from older-design feature phones by their more advanced hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems , access to

636-692: A " keyboard bar " form factor, like the BlackBerry line, Windows Mobile smartphones, Palm Treos , and some of the Nokia Eseries . A few hid their full physical QWERTY keyboard in a sliding form factor , like the Danger Hiptop line. Some even had only a numeric keypad using T9 text input , like the Nokia Nseries and other models in the Nokia Eseries . Resistive touchscreens with stylus -based interfaces could still be found on

742-562: A "Top 10 Worst Anti-Science Websites" list. In 2017, a History Channel documentary, Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence , proposed that a photograph in the National Archives of Jaluit Atoll in the Marshall Islands was actually a picture of a captured Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan . The picture showed a Caucasian male on a dock who appeared to look like Noonan and a woman sitting on the dock, but facing away from

848-515: A "devices and services" company. Despite the growth of Windows Phone and the Lumia range (which accounted for nearly 90% of all Windows Phone devices sold), the platform never had significant market share in the key U.S. market, and Microsoft was unable to maintain Windows Phone's momentum in the years that followed, resulting in dwindling interest from users and app developers. After Balmer

954-405: A $ 10B bid to buy ABC, FX & National Geographic as Bob Iger claimed it 'may not be core' to Disney. On November 29, 2023, Iger announced he was no longer interested in selling Disney's linear TV assets, effectively rejecting Bryon Allen's offer. National Geographic Channel's TV series, in alphabetical order: The National Geographic Channel's signature theme fanfare music, which is played at

1060-431: A 3.5" capacitive touchscreen with twice the common resolution of most smartphone screens at the time , and introduced multi-touch to phones, which allowed gestures such as "pinching" to zoom in or out on photos, maps, and web pages. The iPhone was notable as being the first device of its kind targeted at the mass market to abandon the use of a stylus, keyboard, or keypad typical of contemporary smartphones, instead using

1166-439: A dependence on third-party sources providing applications for multiple platforms. The advantages of a design with software powerful enough to support advanced applications and a large capacitive touchscreen affected the development of another smartphone OS platform, Android , with a more BlackBerry-like prototype device scrapped in favor of a touchscreen device with a slide-out physical keyboard, as Google's engineers thought at

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1272-457: A few smartphones, like the Palm Treos , which had dropped their handwriting input after a few early models that were available in versions with Graffiti instead of a keyboard. The late 2000s and early 2010s saw a shift in smartphone interfaces away from devices with physical keyboards and keypads to ones with large finger-operated capacitive touchscreens. The first phone of any kind with

1378-477: A joint venture of National Geographic Television & Film and Fox Cable Networks . National Geographic provides programming expertise and the Fox Networks Group provides its expertise on distribution , marketing, and advertising sales. The '90s: The Last Great Decade , a documentary series narrated by Rob Lowe , pulled in 1.10 million viewers, and was the second highest-rated July telecast in

1484-404: A large capacitive touchscreen as the sole means of interaction, and led to the decline of earlier, keyboard- and keypad-focused platforms. Later, navigation keys such as the home , back , menu , task and search buttons have also been increasingly replaced by nonphysical touch keys, then virtual, simulated on-screen navigation keys, commonly with access combinations such as a long press of

1590-529: A large capacitive touchscreen was the LG Prada , announced by LG in December 2006. This was a fashionable feature phone created in collaboration with Italian luxury designer Prada with a 3" 240 x 400 pixel screen, a 2-Megapixel digital camera with 144p video recording ability, an LED flash , and a miniature mirror for self portraits. In January 2007, Apple Computer introduced the iPhone . It had

1696-464: A large touchscreen for direct finger input as its main means of interaction. The iPhone's operating system was also a shift away from older operating systems (which older phones supported and which were adapted from PDAs and feature phones ) to an operative system powerful enough to not require using a limited, stripped down web browser that can only render pages specially formatted using technologies such as WML , cHTML , or XHTML and instead ran

1802-455: A lesser extent, handheld video game consoles , e-reader devices, pocket calculators , and GPS tracking units . Since the early 2010s, improved hardware and faster wireless communication (due to standards such as LTE and later 5G NR) have bolstered the growth of the smartphone industry . As of 2014, over a billion smartphones are sold globally every year. In 2019 alone, 1.54 billion smartphone units were shipped worldwide. 75.05 percent of

1908-481: A limited amount of cellular Internet access. PDA and mobile phone manufacturers competed in reducing the size of devices. The bulk of these smartphones combined with their high cost and expensive data plans, plus other drawbacks such as expansion limitations and decreased battery life compared to separate standalone devices, generally limited their popularity to " early adopters " and business users who needed portable connectivity. In March 1996, Hewlett-Packard released

2014-752: A major partnership with Microsoft, under which it would exclusively use Windows Phone on all of its future smartphones, and integrate Microsoft's Bing search engine and Bing Maps (which, as part of the partnership, would also license Nokia Maps data) into all future devices. The announcement led to the abandonment of both Symbian, as well as MeeGo —a Linux-based mobile platform it was co-developing with Intel. Nokia's low-end Lumia 520 saw strong demand and helped Windows Phone gain niche popularity in some markets, overtaking BlackBerry in global market share in 2013. In mid-June 2012, Meizu released its mobile operating system, Flyme OS . Many of these attempts to compete with Android and iPhone were short-lived. Over

2120-888: A major rebrand for the first time since February 16, 2008. The logo still kept the golden letter 'H' that had been used since its launch in 1995. Programming on the History Channel has covered a wide range of historical periods and topics, while similar themed topics are often organized into themed weeks or daily marathons. Subjects include warfare , inventions , aviation , mechanical and civil engineering , technology , science , nature , artists , composers , authors , mythical creatures , monsters , unidentified flying objects , conspiracy theories , aliens , religious beliefs , disaster scenarios, apocalyptic "after man" scenarios, survival scenarios, alternate history , dinosaurs , doomsday , organized crime , secret societies , and 2012 superstitions. Occasionally, some programs compare contemporary culture and technology with that of

2226-427: A phenomenon he termed "the History Channel effect". Stoddard also claimed that the History Channel did not contribute to this phenomenon alone, but rather, it was caused by the misperception that documentaries are "objective sources of history". In 2011, Forbes staffer Alex Knapp wrote, "The History Channel shouldn't run stuff like this 'ancient astronaut' nonsense." Forbes contributor Brad Lockwood criticized

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2332-531: A redesigned user interface, support for gestures such as pinch-to-zoom, and a new web browser based on the same WebKit rendering engine used by the iPhone. The following year, RIM released BlackBerry OS 7 and new models in the Bold and Torch ranges, which included a new Bold with a touchscreen alongside its keyboard, and the Torch 9860—the first BlackBerry phone to not include a physical keyboard. In 2013, it replaced

2438-416: A rotary knob ring around the lens and a tripod mount. While screen sizes have increased, manufacturers have attempted to make smartphones thinner at the expense of utility and sturdiness, since a thinner frame is more vulnerable to bending and has less space for components, namely battery capacity. The iPhone and later touchscreen-only Android devices together popularized the slate form factor , based on

2544-708: A sister to History; Corus purchased the network in 2013. On April 1, 2016, Corus Entertainment merged with Shaw Media, and as a result, now holds the Canadian English and French-language rights to History programming. The British version launched in November 1995, and arrived in Ireland on November 1, 1999. The UK channel is a joint venture with Sky UK and was renamed Sky History on May 27, 2020, incorporating content from Sky Documentaries and Sky Nature . The German version launched on November 14, 2004, and

2650-526: A spin-off from the History Channel in November 1998. On February 16, 2008, a new logo was launched on the U.S. network as part of a rebranding effort. While the trademark "H" was kept, the triangle shape on the left acts as a play button for animation and flyouts during commercials and shows. On March 20, 2008, as part of that same rebranding effort, the History Channel dropped "The" and "Channel" from its name to become simply "History". In 2012, half of A&E would be purchased by The Walt Disney Company and

2756-571: A version of Apple's Safari browser that could render full websites not specifically designed for mobile phones. Later Apple shipped a software update that gave the iPhone a built-in on-device App Store allowing direct wireless downloads of third-party software. This kind of centralized App Store and free developer tools quickly became the new main paradigm for all smartphone platforms for software development , distribution , discovery, installation , and payment, in place of expensive developer tools that required official approval to use and

2862-500: Is Warner Bros. Discovery's American Heroes Channel , formerly the Military Channel. Military History was launched on January 5, 2005 after demand for more military history programs. Beginning on March 27, 2004, a military-history programming block started on now defunct network History International as a prologue. The launch was an open preview, or soft launch, as no cable operators were signed up. Dan Davids, president of

2968-613: Is a cable/satellite TV channel focused on animal-related programs. It is a sister network to National Geographic Channel and it is the latest channel to be jointly launched by the National Geographic Society and Fox Cable Networks. It was launched in United States on March 29, 2010, focusing primarily on wildlife and natural history programming. Nat Geo Mundo is broadcast in American Spanish, and

3074-646: Is available to approximately 63,000,000 pay television households in the United States-down from its 2011 peak of 99,000,000 households. International localized versions of the History Channel are available, in various forms, in India, Canada, Europe, Australia, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Latin America. The company indicated that plans for a history channel were in the works in 1993, it purchased

3180-509: Is operated by Foxtel Networks , and the programming and name of the channel is licensed to them by A&E Networks . The History Channel was launched on December 1, 2003, as part of the DStv satellite TV package provided by MultiChoice. Smartphone A smartphone , often simply called a phone , is a mobile device that combines the functionality of a traditional mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has

3286-521: Is operated by The History Channel Germany GmbH & Co. KG, a joint venture between A+E Networks and NBC Universal Global Networks Germany . The Italian version was launched on July 31, 2003, as a joint venture of A&E Networks and Fox International Channels Italy ; then it became a sole venture of A&E Networks in 2012. The History Channel is available in Spain and Portugal though cable, satellite, and IPTV platforms, as well as streaming media under

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3392-676: The American Civil Liberties Union 's website on the "Origins of Christmas" and by the Comedy Central series The Daily Show . Daily Show host Jon Stewart responded the next day by stating it was their fault for trusting the History Channel and satirized a clip from the History Channel about UFOs and Nazis by stating, "The next thing you know we'll all find out the Nazis did not employ alien technology in their quest for world domination." The History Channel

3498-543: The J-SH04 , a Sharp J-Phone model sold in Japan in November 2000. It could instantly transmit pictures via cell phone telecommunication . By the mid-2000s, higher-end cell phones commonly had integrated digital cameras. In 2003 camera phones outsold stand-alone digital cameras, and in 2006 they outsold film and digital stand-alone cameras. Five billion camera phones were sold in five years, and by 2007 more than half of

3604-1033: The Japanese market , such as mobile payments and shopping, near-field communication (NFC) allowing mobile wallet functionality to replace smart cards for transit fares, loyalty cards, identity cards, event tickets, coupons, money transfer, etc., downloadable content like musical ringtones , games , and comics , and 1seg mobile television . Phones built by Japanese manufacturers used custom firmware , however, and did not yet feature standardized mobile operating systems designed to cater to third-party application development , so their software and ecosystems were akin to very advanced feature phones . As with other feature phones, additional software and services required partnerships and deals with providers. The degree of integration between phones and carriers, unique phone features, non-standardized platforms, and tailoring to Japanese culture made it difficult for Japanese manufacturers to export their phones, especially when demand

3710-589: The Nokia 9000 Communicator , a digital cellular PDA based on the Nokia 2110 with an integrated system based on the PEN/GEOS 3.0 operating system from Geoworks . The two components were attached by a hinge in what became known as a clamshell design , with the display above and a physical QWERTY keyboard below. The PDA provided e-mail ; calendar, address book, calculator and notebook applications; text-based Web browsing; and could send and receive faxes. When closed,

3816-566: The Nokia N8 , Sony Ericsson Satio , and Samsung M8910 Pixon12 feature phone had 12 MP. The main camera of the 2009 Nokia N86 uniquely features a three-level aperture lens. The Altek Leo, a 14-megapixel smartphone with 3x optical zoom lens and 720p HD video camera was released in late 2010. In 2011, the same year the Nintendo 3DS was released, HTC unveiled the Evo 3D , a 3D phone with

3922-555: The OmniGo 700LX , a modified HP 200LX palmtop PC with a Nokia 2110 mobile phone piggybacked onto it and ROM -based software to support it. It had a 640 × 200 resolution CGA compatible four-shade gray-scale LCD screen and could be used to place and receive calls, and to create and receive text messages, emails and faxes. It was also 100% DOS 5.0 compatible, allowing it to run thousands of existing software titles, including early versions of Windows . In August 1996, Nokia released

4028-564: The Pre 3 and HP TouchPad tablet. As part of a proposed divestment of its consumer business to focus on enterprise software, HP abruptly ended development of future webOS devices in August 2011, and sold the rights to webOS to LG Electronics in 2013, for use as a smart TV platform. Research in Motion introduced the vertical-sliding BlackBerry Torch and BlackBerry OS 6 in 2010, which featured

4134-627: The exponential scaling and miniaturization of MOS transistors down to sub-micron levels ( Moore's law ), the improved lithium-ion battery , faster digital mobile data networks ( Edholm's law ), and more mature software platforms that allowed mobile device ecosystems to develop independently of data providers . In the 2000s, NTT DoCoMo 's i-mode platform, BlackBerry , Nokia 's Symbian platform, and Windows Mobile began to gain market traction, with models often featuring QWERTY keyboards or resistive touchscreen input and emphasizing access to push email and wireless internet . In

4240-479: The installed base of all mobile phones were camera phones. Sales of separate cameras peaked in 2008. Many early smartphones did not have cameras at all, and earlier models that had them had low performance and insufficient image and video quality that could not compete with budget pocket cameras and fulfill user's needs. By the beginning of the 2010s almost all smartphones had an integrated digital camera. The decline in sales of stand-alone cameras accelerated due to

4346-413: The internet , business applications, mobile payments , and multimedia functionality, including music, video, gaming , radio , and television . Smartphones typically contain a number of metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) integrated circuit (IC) chips, include various sensors that can be leveraged by pre-installed and third-party software (such as a magnetometer , a proximity sensor , a barometer ,

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4452-478: The " Pocket PC " versions of what was later Windows Mobile , and the UIQ interface that was originally designed for pen-based PDAs on Symbian OS devices resulted in some early smartphones having stylus-based interfaces. These allowed for virtual keyboards and handwriting input, thus also allowing easy entry of Asian characters. By the mid-2000s, the majority of smartphones had a physical QWERTY keyboard. Most used

4558-503: The 1990s, or lithium-ion batteries used in modern smartphones. The term "smart phone" (in two words) was not coined until a year after the introduction of the Simon, appearing in print as early as 1995, describing AT&T's PhoneWriter Communicator. The term "smartphone" (as one word) was first used by Ericsson in 1997 to describe a new device concept, the GS88 . Beginning in

4664-425: The 1990s, the History Channel was jokingly referred to as "The Hitler Channel" for its extensive coverage of World War II . Since then, much of its military-themed programming has been shifted to its sister network Military History . A&E Networks considered the History Channel to be the driver in international expansion due to a lack of international rights to A&E international co-productions. As expected,

4770-729: The English-language version. History Television launched in 1997 and was not initially related to its then similarly named American counterpart. During History Television's first several years of operation, despite sharing a similar programming focus, it rarely, if ever, acquired programming from the American channel. The phrase "Not available in Canada" was used heavily during The History Channel's early years in promotional ads on American channels that were imported to Canadian pay television providers, particularly A&E. Beginning in

4876-663: The History Channel in Singapore , Hong Kong , Thailand , the Philippines , Malaysia , Indonesia , Vietnam , and Brunei in the second and third quarters of 2007, and in Taiwan and China by the end of the year. Some other Asian countries, such as Kuwait , Israel , and Japan , have their own versions of the network. On September 1, 2008, History Channel Asia was officially launched in Singapore and Hong Kong followed by

4982-546: The History Channel USA, planned to push for digital basic level cable carriage. Its initial programming library drew from A&E and History's programs. The channel's initial prime time shows were under an umbrella banner of “Battle History”, which consisted of five documentary miniseries featuring each of the US military services. In the second quarter of 2005, the channel had its hard launch. Like its parent channel,

5088-695: The History Channel led A&E's overseas expansion in Brazil with TVA (April 1996), the Nordic and Baltic regions with Modern Times Group (1997), and in Canada (1997). The History Channel expanded in 1998 into tours of US landmarks with Mayflower Tours having an affiliated website (historytravel.com), History Channel Traveler , and a planned quarterly magazine. While in October, the History Channel and MSG Network teamed up to produce several short-form sports history programs. A&E launched History International as

5194-549: The Lou Reda Productions documentary library and long-term rights for the Hearst Entertainment documentaries archive. The History Channel was launched on January 1, 1995, initially owned by A&E Television Networks. With its UK counterpart, a partnership with British Sky Broadcasting , following on November 1, 1995. Its original format focused entirely on historical series and specials . During

5300-520: The National Geographic Channel rating history. The 2000s: A New Reality , also narrated by Lowe, premiered on July 12, 2015. On November 14, 2016, National Geographic Channel was renamed as simply National Geographic, dropping the "Channel" from its name. On December 14, 2017, in a deal , The Walt Disney Company announced it would buy the majority of 21st Century Fox . Disney would assume control of Fox's controlling stake in

5406-659: The National Geographic partnership thereafter. Following the acquisition, National Geographic and its sister channels were folded into Walt Disney Television , with the president of the National Geographic Partners reporting directly to the Walt Disney Television chairman. Disney officially closed the deal on March 20, 2019, having then added Nat Geo into its portfolio of networks. On September 15, 2023, Byron Allen made

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5512-876: The Philippines. The South Korean version of History Channel was launched on September 22, 2017, replacing the Southeast version that was previously transmitted. After the launch, A+E networks Korea launched an original series program called History in the Bottle (말술클럽). The Latin American version was launched in 2001. It is owned by A&E and controlled in the region by Ole Distribution . It airs US programming, translated to Spanish or Portuguese or in English with Spanish or Portuguese subtitles. Also, it develops some Latin American programming in Spanish. The channel

5618-531: The Strange podcast, released January 4, 2019, Radford reminded listeners that in excess of 18 months had passed without an apology or explanation from the History Channel as to "how their research went so horribly wrong." Military History is a niche spin-off from the History channel that features reruns of programs about the history of the military and significant combat events. The channel's main competitor

5724-453: The United States, is Nat Geo Wild , which focuses on animal-related programming, including the popular Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan . As of November 2023, Nat Geo is available to approximately 70,000,000 pay television households in the United States-down from its 2016 peak of 91,000,000 households. In the United States, under leadership of its president Tim T. Kelly , the National Geographic Channel launched on January 7, 2001, as

5830-434: The United States, while receiving criticism over the series' nonhistorical nature . US Senator Chuck Grassley is a critic of the channel and its lack of historical or educational programming, showing particular disdain for the latter two programs. Professor Jeremy Stoddard, in his article published in 2010, raised the concern that the productions of the network presented value-laden perspectives which may mislead audiences,

5936-601: The Way to the Emmys: An Amelia Earhart Special (Non) Mystery Post-Mortem", critiquing the network's lack of professionalism, Radford said: "Given that the photograph's provenance was established and thus the key premise of the show discredited in about half an hour of Google searching, it will be interesting to see what world class expertise... the History Channel will bring to their reinvestigation of Earhart's disappearance." On episode 82 of his Squaring

6042-524: The accusations against the series were based on misinformation. The show was repackaged, amid controversy, as Battlefield Recovery for air during 2016 on Channel 5 in the UK. History (American TV network) History (stylized in all caps ), formerly and commonly known as the History Channel , is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by A&E Networks ,

6148-606: The beginning of many of the channel's television programs, was composed by Elmer Bernstein . It was originally written in 1964 for the Society's television specials , which were broadcast on CBS , ABC , PBS and NBC from 1964 until the early 2000s. The United States 720p high definition simulcast of the National Geographic Channel launched in January 2006. It is available on all major cable and satellite providers. Nat Geo Wild (stylized as Nat Geo WILD or abbreviated as NGW)

6254-537: The brand Canal de Historia. The History Channel Iberia is a joint venture between A+E Networks and AMC Networks International Iberia . The Dutch version launched on May 1, 2007. This version is distributed by A&E Networks Benelux. In January 2008, History HD was launched in the Netherlands. It is available on cable providers Telenet and Ziggo . It is also available on the IPTV service KPN . A Polish version

6360-415: The camera, who was judged to have a physique and haircut resembling Earhart's. The documentary theorizes that the photo was taken after Earhart and Noonan crashed at Mili Atoll . The documentary also said that physical evidence recovered from Mili matches pieces that could have fallen off an Electra during a crash or subsequent overland move to a barge. The Lost Evidence proposed that a Japanese ship seen in

6466-421: The channel creators about the events portrayed in the channel's programs. However, in recent years the network has been criticized for having a bias towards US history . Another former sister network, History International , more extensively covered history outside the US until 2011, when it was re-branded as H2 and started broadcasting more material that had to do with US history. Stanley Kutner criticized

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6572-536: The channel dropped the word "Channel" from its name on March 20, 2008. Its carriage is limited to expanded tier and add-on pay-TV packages as a niche offering, and it is one of the few mainstream American cable channels in English still carried only in standard definition. Military History features programs that focus on historical battles and wars, as well as programs that profile key individuals such as generals, soldiers and spies. It also airs documentaries and series that provide insight into how these wars were fought and

6678-600: The channel is scheduled separately from the UK version. The History Channel started its operations in India in late 2003 with 21st Century Fox 's STAR TV as its sales partner, managed by National Geographic until November 21, 2008. The History Channel India closed down on November 21, 2008. In 2011, History was granted permission to relaunch services in India. A joint venture of A&E Networks and TV18 relaunched History TV18 in India in eight languages in 2014. A joint venture of AETN and Astro All Asia Networks launched

6784-715: The channel's addition of "programs devoted to monsters, aliens, and conspiracies", attributing a perceived intent of boosting ratings to the network's decision to focus on pseudoarchaeology instead of documented facts. Knapp refers readers to the Bad Archaeology website's founder Keith Fitzpatrick-Matthews who comments, "I find it incredible and frightening that a worldwide distributed television channel ...can broadcast such rubbish as Ancient Aliens ." Archaeologist Kenneth Feder , author of Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology , called

6890-508: The channel's hosting the ancient astronaut theory "execrable bullshit". In his book 2012: It's Not the End of the World , Peter Lemesurier describes the channel's Nostradamus series, in which he was invited to participate, as "largely fiction" and "lurid nonsense". He also lists numerous allusions made in its films to the alleged Mayan "end of the world" and the "rare" galactic alignment that

6996-489: The company announced that it would also exit the hardware market to focus more on software and its enterprise middleware, and began to license the BlackBerry brand and its Android distribution to third-party OEMs such as TCL for future devices. In September 2013, Microsoft announced its intent to acquire Nokia's mobile device business for $ 7.1 billion, as part of a strategy under CEO Steve Ballmer for Microsoft to be

7102-427: The course of the decade, the two platforms became a clear duopoly in smartphone sales and market share, with BlackBerry, Windows Phone, and other operating systems eventually stagnating to little or no measurable market share. In 2015, BlackBerry began to pivot away from its in-house mobile platforms in favor of producing Android devices, focusing on a security-enhanced distribution of the software. The following year,

7208-462: The device could be used as a digital cellular telephone. In June 1999 Qualcomm released the "pdQ Smartphone", a CDMA digital PCS smartphone with an integrated Palm PDA and Internet connectivity. Subsequent landmark devices included: In 1999, Japanese wireless provider NTT DoCoMo launched i-mode , a new mobile internet platform which provided data transmission speeds up to 9.6 kilobits per second, and access web services available through

7314-478: The early 1990s, IBM engineer Frank Canova realised that chip-and-wireless technology was becoming small enough to use in handheld devices . The first commercially available device that could be properly referred to as a "smartphone" began as a prototype called "Angler" developed by Canova in 1992 while at IBM and demonstrated in November of that year at the COMDEX computer industry trade show. A refined version

7420-466: The iPhone; Palm unveiled a new platform known as webOS for its Palm Pre in late-2009 to replace Palm OS , which featured a focus on a task-based "card" metaphor and seamless synchronization and integration between various online services (as opposed to the then-conventional concept of a smartphone needing a PC to serve as a "canonical, authoritative repository" for user data). HP acquired Palm in 2010 and released several other webOS devices, including

7526-526: The increasing use of smartphones with rapidly improving camera technology for casual photography, easier image manipulation , and abilities to directly share photos through the use of apps and web-based services. By 2011, cell phones with integrated cameras were selling hundreds of millions per year. In 2015, digital camera sales were 35.395 million units or only less than a third of digital camera sales numbers at their peak and also slightly less than film camera sold number at their peak. Contributing to

7632-493: The late 2000s, several History (US) shows were acquired for Canadian broadcast on History Television. On May 30, 2012, then-parent company Shaw Media announced that it would rebrand History Channel as a Canadian version of the US History channel in the fall of 2012, through a licensing agreement with A+E Networks. History Television would be relaunched on August 12, 2012, with another Shaw-owned specialty channel relaunched as

7738-533: The legacy BlackBerry OS with a revamped, QNX -based platform known as BlackBerry 10 , with the all-touch BlackBerry Z10 and keyboard-equipped Q10 as launch devices. In 2010, Microsoft unveiled a replacement for Windows Mobile known as Windows Phone , featuring a new touchscreen-centric user interface built around flat design and typography, a home screen with "live tiles" containing feeds of updates from apps, as well as integrated Microsoft Office apps. In February 2011, Nokia announced that it had entered into

7844-436: The lives of those who served in them. Its programming library draws from A&E and History's program libraries with an emphasis on World War II . History en Español is an American Spanish-language pay television channel. The network launched on June 24, 2004 as a counterpart to History focusing mainly on Hispanic America and world history. The network shows original programming, as well as Spanish-dubbed programs from

7950-578: The lowest of its ratings, noting that its own research showed that both the Senate and the House had only convened once in those 67 years on a Christmas Day. It noted that because one in seven Christmases falls on a Sunday (when Congress does not meet to allow members to attend church), the claim is "ridiculous". The claim had first been broadcast on the History Channel program Christmas Unwrapped – The History of Christmas before being subsequently picked up by

8056-545: The main image with a macro focus shot . In 2007 the Nokia N95 was notable as a smartphone that had a 5.0 Megapixel (MP) camera, when most others had cameras with around 3 MP or less than 2 MP. Some specialized feature phones like the LG Viewty , Samsung SGH-G800 , and Sony Ericsson K850i , all released later that year, also had 5.0 MP cameras. By 2010 5.0 MP cameras were common; a few smartphones had 8.0 MP cameras and

8162-526: The mid-to-late 1990s, many people who had mobile phones carried a separate dedicated PDA device, running early versions of operating systems such as Palm OS , Newton OS , Symbian or Windows CE / Pocket PC . These operating systems would later evolve into early mobile operating systems . Most of the "smartphones" in this era were hybrid devices that combined these existing familiar PDA OSes with basic phone hardware. The results were devices that were bulkier than either dedicated mobile phones or PDAs, but allowed

8268-460: The network for the series The Men Who Killed Kennedy in 2003. Kutner was one of three historians commissioned to review the documentary, which the channel disavowed and never aired again. Programs such as Modern Marvels have been praised for their presentation of detailed information in an entertaining format. Some of the network's series, including Ice Road Truckers , Ax Men , and Pawn Stars , garnered increased viewership ratings in

8374-607: The other half by Hearst Communications , also putting History under their joint ownership. In 2015, the channel would undergo another rebranding, this time by Joseph Kiely. The slogan of this rebranding was "Make Your Mark". The logo was slightly changed, but retained the golden letter 'H' that had become synonymous with the channel. The "History 100" documentary initiative was announced in March 2018 that would produce 100 documentaries covering major events and notable figures from last 100 years. On December 7, 2021, History received

8480-613: The past. The channel's programming would expand into scripted dramas with the premiere Vikings in 2013. Initially, the network received mixed reviews. In an article from the American Historical Association released about a year into the channel's lifespan, the channel's historical consultant Libby Haight O' Connell noted that professional historians have been enlisted to work on the channel's programs and many letters have come in from viewers both pointing out historical errors and opening up discussion with

8586-639: The photograph was the Koshu Maru , a Japanese military ship. The Lost Evidence was soon discredited after Japanese blogger Kota Yamano found the original source of the photograph in the archives in the National Diet Library Digital Collection. The original source of the photo was a Japanese travel guide published in October 1935, implying that the photograph was taken in 1935 or before, thus it would be unrelated to Earhart and Noonan's 1937 disappearance. Additionally,

8692-671: The platform such as online shopping. NTT DoCoMo's i-mode used cHTML , a language which restricted some aspects of traditional HTML in favor of increasing data speed for the devices. Limited functionality, small screens and limited bandwidth allowed for phones to use the slower data speeds available. The rise of i-mode helped NTT DoCoMo accumulate an estimated 40 million subscribers by the end of 2001, and ranked first in market capitalization in Japan and second globally. Japanese cell phones increasingly diverged from global standards and trends to offer other forms of advanced services and smartphone-like functionality that were specifically tailored to

8798-485: The researcher who discovered the photo also identified the ship in the right of the photo as another ship called Koshu seized by Allied Japanese forces in World War I and not the Koshu Maru . Researcher Ben Radford performed a detailed analysis of the mistakes made by The History Channel in building their documentary on bad photographic evidence. In his Skeptical Inquirer article "A Funny Thing Happened on

8904-526: The rest of the world. Phones that made effective use of any significant data connectivity were still rare outside Japan until the introduction of the Danger Hiptop in 2002, which saw moderate success among U.S. consumers as the T-Mobile Sidekick. Later, in the mid-2000s, business users in the U.S. started to adopt devices based on Microsoft's Windows Mobile , and then BlackBerry smartphones from Research In Motion . American users popularized

9010-412: The rise in popularity of smartphones being used over dedicated cameras for photography, smaller pocket cameras have difficulty producing bokeh in images, but nowadays, some smartphones have dual-lens cameras that reproduce the bokeh effect easily, and can even rearrange the level of bokeh after shooting. This works by capturing multiple images with different focus settings, then combining the background of

9116-660: The rising popularity of the iPhone in the late 2000s, the majority of smartphones have featured thin, slate-like form factors with large, capacitive touch screens with support for multi-touch gestures rather than physical keyboards. Most modern smartphones have the ability for users to download or purchase additional applications from a centralized app store . They often have support for cloud storage and cloud synchronization, and virtual assistants . Smartphones have largely replaced personal digital assistant (PDA) devices, handheld/palm-sized PCs , portable media players (PMP), point-and-shoot cameras , camcorders , and, to

9222-562: The standalone handset can when necessary be inserted into a tablet -sized screen unit with integrated supportive battery and used as such. In 2013 and 2014, Samsung experimented with the hybrid combination of compact camera and smartphone, releasing the Galaxy S4 Zoom and K Zoom , each equipped with integrated 10× optical zoom lens and manual parameter settings (including manual exposure and focus) years before these were widely adapted among smartphones. The S4 Zoom additionally has

9328-542: The task key to simulate a short menu key press, as with home button to search. More recent "bezel-less" types have their screen surface space extended to the unit's front bottom to compensate for the display area lost for simulating the navigation keys. While virtual keys offer more potential customizability, their location may be inconsistent among systems depending on screen rotation and software used. Multiple vendors attempted to update or replace their existing smartphone platforms and devices to better-compete with Android and

9434-467: The term "CrackBerry" in 2006 due to the BlackBerry's addictive nature. In the U.S., the high cost of data plans and relative rarity of devices with Wi-Fi capabilities that could avoid cellular data network usage kept adoption of smartphones mainly to business professionals and " early adopters ." Outside the U.S. and Japan, Nokia was seeing success with its smartphones based on Symbian , originally developed by Psion for their personal organisers, and it

9540-489: The time that a touchscreen could not completely replace a physical keyboard and buttons. Android is based around a modified Linux kernel, again providing more power than mobile operating systems adapted from PDAs and feature phones. The first Android device, the horizontal-sliding HTC Dream , was released in September 2008. In 2012, Asus started experimenting with a convertible docking system named PadFone , where

9646-542: The work of metal detecting souvenir hunters and collectable dealers. In 2013 the National Geographic Channel set off a firestorm of controversy with its reality show Diggers . Professional archaeologists from the Society for Historical Archaeology , the largest scholarly group concerned with the archaeology of the modern world (A.D. 1400–present), roundly criticized the network for promoting the theft of cultural materials on public and private land. The show Nazi War Diggers

9752-415: The world population were smartphone users as of 2020. Early smartphones were marketed primarily towards the enterprise market, attempting to bridge the functionality of standalone PDA devices with support for cellular telephony , but were limited by their bulky form, short battery life , slow analog cellular networks, and the immaturity of wireless data services. These issues were eventually resolved with

9858-440: Was accused of showing unscientific and disrespectful handling of human remains. A promotional quote from a military relic dealer, "I feel that by selling things that are Nazi-related and for lots of money, I am preserving things that museums don't want to deal with," was removed from the channel's website in March 2014. National Geographic expressed regret for how the series was presented by its own website but maintained that many of

9964-537: Was also singled out in a post for Smithsonian magazine. Science writer Riley Black took issue with the show Ancient Aliens for postulating the "idea that aliens caused the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs ." The online magazine Cracked also lampooned the channel for its strange definition of history. Cracked singled out the programs UFO Hunters and Ancient Aliens as being the very definition of non-history by presenting pseudoscience and pseudohistory . In 2015, skeptic Brian Dunning listed it at #2 on

10070-555: Was announced that the Nat Geo TV app would shut down on September 23 along with all other Disney-owned TV Everywhere apps, such as DisneyNOW , Freeform , FXNow and ABC . However, viewers can still watch episodes on the Nat Geo website even after said date. Archaeologists have protested that National Geographic shows such as Diggers and Nazi War Diggers promote the looting and destruction of archaeological sites by promoting

10176-477: Was later moved to the Swedish TV8 channel and continued broadcasting there until November 2004. When History channel announced their own 24-hour pan-European channel, Viasat launched its own history-oriented channel, Viasat History , in the Nordic region, but with no original programming. On February 1, 2007, the History Channel returned to Sweden and also Denmark, Norway, Finland when the pan-European version

10282-597: Was launched as a standalone channel on the Canal Digital satellite platform and later through cable operator Com hem. The History Channel launched on February 1, 2007, on the Canal Digital DTH satellite package for viewers in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland. The channel is being launched by The History Channel UK, A&E's joint venture with BSkyB. Although it broadcasts in English with local subtitles,

10388-765: Was launched in 2011. It shares programming with the Nat Geo Channel available in Hispanic American countries. The channel is fully-owned by the National Geographic Society with no involvement from Disney General Entertainment Content. Nat Geo TV is an application for smartphones and tablet computers , along with Windows 10 . It allows subscribers of participating pay television providers (such as Spectrum and Comcast Xfinity ) numerous viewing options, including individual episodes of National Geographic and Nat Geo Wild 's original series and documentaries (which are made available live). On August 24, 2024, it

10494-461: Was launched on April 9, 2008. It is available on cable providers Aster, Dialog, Toya, and UPC Polska , and also through satellite television (with its HD version carried on the n platform since June 1, 2012) and an SD version on Cyfra+ (since November 2, 2009). A Scandinavian version was first launched in September 1997, broadcasting for three and later four hours a day on the analogue Viasat platform. Initially time-sharing with TV1000 Cinema, it

10600-401: Was manufactured by Mitsubishi Electric , which integrated features with its own cellular radio technologies. It featured a liquid-crystal display (LCD) and PC Card support. The Simon was commercially unsuccessful, particularly due to its bulky form factor and limited battery life , using NiCad batteries rather than the nickel–metal hydride batteries commonly used in mobile phones in

10706-435: Was marketed to consumers in 1994 by BellSouth under the name Simon Personal Communicator . In addition to placing and receiving cellular calls , the touchscreen-equipped Simon could send and receive faxes and emails . It included an address book, calendar, appointment scheduler, calculator, world time clock, and notepad, as well as other visionary mobile applications such as maps, stock reports and news. The IBM Simon

10812-541: Was so high in Japan that the companies did not feel the need to look elsewhere for additional profits. The rise of 3G technology in other markets and non-Japanese phones with powerful standardized smartphone operating systems , app stores , and advanced wireless network capabilities allowed non-Japanese phone manufacturers to finally break in to the Japanese market, gradually adopting Japanese phone features like emojis , mobile payments, NFC, etc. and spreading them to

10918-767: Was succeeded by Satya Nadella (who has placed a larger focus on software and cloud computing) as CEO of Microsoft, it took a $ 7.6 billion write-off on the Nokia assets in July 2015, and laid off nearly the entire Microsoft Mobile unit in May 2016. Prior to the completion of the sale to Microsoft, Nokia released a series of Android-derived smartphones for emerging markets known as Nokia X , which combined an Android-based platform with elements of Windows Phone and Nokia's feature phone platform Asha , using Microsoft and Nokia services rather than Google. The first commercial camera phone

11024-538: Was supposed by John Major Jenkins to accompany it in 2012 , while Jenkins himself has described Decoding the Past as "45 minutes of unabashed doomsday hype and the worst kind of inane sensationalism ." In December 2011, Politifact gave the History Channel's claim that the United States Congress stayed open on Christmas Day for most of its first 67 years of existence a "pants on fire" rating,

11130-482: Was the Kyocera Visual Phone VP-210 , released in Japan in May 1999. It was called a "mobile videophone" at the time, and had a 110,000- pixel front-facing camera . It could send up to two images per second over Japan's Personal Handy-phone System (PHS) cellular network , and store up to 20 JPEG digital images , which could be sent over e-mail . The first mass-market camera phone was

11236-655: Was the most popular smartphone OS in Europe during the middle to late 2000s. Initially, Nokia's Symbian smartphones were focused on business with the Eseries , similar to Windows Mobile and BlackBerry devices at the time. From 2002 onwards, Nokia started producing consumer-focused smartphones, popularized by the entertainment-focused Nseries . Until 2010, Symbian was the world's most widely used smartphone operating system. The touchscreen personal digital assistant (PDA)–derived nature of adapted operating systems like Palm OS ,

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