geographic

I don't mean to be a hater, but if the National Geographic Talk Abroad Lite weren't attached to the Talk Abroad international cell phone SIM card, I'd have to wind caution tape all around my review.

So why wouldn't you run from this handset, given my less-than-glowing recommendation? Its two saving graces are the travel plan that gives you a U.S. and U.K. number, so friends and family can always reach you while abroad, and the fact that for an unlocked phone, its $59.99 price tag is extremely affordable.

Let's face it, … Read more

Just in case his billion-dollar blockbuster wasn't realistic enough for you, not to mention the new $18 million 3D version, James Cameron has created another film about the Titanic, which presents its final minutes in stunning detail.

"From iceberg to bottom, it's never been animated so precisely and so dramatically," the Canadian ubermensch and premier Titanic obsessive says in the trailer to "Titanic: The Final Word With James Cameron," which premieres on the National Geographic Channel on April 8. … Read more

One year ago, famous filmmakers asked YouTube viewers to upload a video reflecting a day in their lives. According to the filmmakers, people from all over the world uploaded a cumulative 80,000 videos, with 4,500 hours of footage.

The result of their edited efforts is the 90-minute documentary "Life in a Day." It's been described as "a historic cinematic experiment to create a documentary film about a single day on Earth."

Presented by YouTube and National Geographic, the film was made by a mighty duo of producer Ridley Scott and director Kevin Macdonald. … Read more

The National Geographic Xplorer may not look like much beyond its rugged exterior (and neat flashlight button!), but hidden within the rough 'n' tumble feature phone is a special SIM card that makes the Xplorer a certain traveler's ideal companion.

The Talk Abroad service imbues the SIM with both a U.S. and U.K. phone number, which helps North American sojourners communicate with contacts at home and abroad. Calls are significantly pricier than more conventional solutions for international dialing, and costs can add up.

While the handset itself is nothing special features-wise, the calling capabilities are handy and … Read more

This is it. No, really. I know you might have been temporarily fooled two years ago when it seemed as if the Lost City of Atlantis had turned up on Google Earth.

But this time it's serious. Really serious. How do I know? Well, it's on the National Geographic Channel.

According to Reuters, tomorrow night the channel will reveal the work of Richard Freund, a professor at the University of Hartford, Conn., and his international team of Atlantis-seekers.

You will be wondering where Atlantis truly is. Throughout history there has been speculation that it was somewhere near Southern … Read more

Ever wished real life could be more like a Pixar movie? It was for a little while on Saturday, as a team of awesomizers managed to successfully lift a house into the air, "Up" style, using a cluster of brightly colored balloons.

The adorable 2,000-pound, 16x16-foot yellow house took to the skies with the aid of 300 weather balloons that grow to 8 feet tall when inflated. From top to bottom, the entire aircraft measured 10 stories high and reached an altitude of 10,000 feet. It flew for about an hour at dawn from a private airfield east of Los Angeles. Oh, and there were people (of the non-animated variety) aboard.

The floating feat sets a world record for the largest balloon cluster flight ever attempted, according to the National Geographic Channel. It filmed the flight as part of a new series called "How Hard Can It Be?" that's set to debut in the fall.

And if you're wondering how hard it can be to set a balloon-supported house aloft, well, "it was pretty hard," Paul Carson, the show's host, notes in the behind-the-scenes video below. "It was very difficult actually." … Read more

We promised it to you last month, and here is CNET's first review of a dual SIM card cell phone. We know the Duet D888 from Beyond E-Tech is not the first dual SIM phone ever, but it is the first one we've reviewed. Even better, it is the first dual SIM card phone widely available in the United States. You can get it for $199 from National Geographic and Cellular Abroad.

With the D888, you can make calls and send texts from two numbers on the same handset. Outside of a few usability quirks, the arrangement works … Read more

National Geographic has a fun new feature called the Infinite Photograph that takes over 300,000 photos collected from its archives and submitted by users, and turns them into a giant photo mosaic. It lets you zoom in infinitely, making your way deeper into each photo as it breaks down into smaller photos of various colors.

The service is the latest effort to promote the company's MyShot program, which showcases user-uploaded photographs that appear both online and in the monthly publication.

Early Thursday I spoke with Rob Covey, who is National Geographic's senior vice president of content and … Read more