The Wonderful World of Completely Random Facts — Issue 90

No More Fish to Catch

River Monsters was a show on Animal Planet hosted by Jeremy Wade that debuted in 2009 and ran for nine seasons until 2017. The show was about catching the world’s biggest river fish and teaching viewers all about them.

But the show didn’t end because the network canceled it or the host wanted to move on to other things. It ended because Wade had caught every giant or dangerous fish off an ambitious list he had created before the show aired, and there were no new giant fish to catch. This effectively ended the show because there was no new content. After the show ended, Wade made his way onto other projects like Mighty Rivers and Mysteries of the Deep. Source

The World’s First Smartphone

Though it wasn’t called it at the time, IBM is credited with developing the world’s first smartphone. It was called the IBM Simon Personal Communicator and was released in 1994, well before smartphones became a staple in society.

The IBM Simon had many features such as a touchscreen, calendar, address book, email and fax capabilities, a calculator, world clock, notepad, and an on-screen keyboard. It also included a stylus for writing on the screen. IBM made a deal with Mitsubishi Electric to manufacture the device, and its name came from the children’s game “Simon Says” since it was considered a name that was easy for people to remember.

The device was offered for sale across 15 states in the United States through BellSouth at a cost of $895 with a two-year contract or $1099 without a contract. That is over $2000 in today’s money. BellSouth reportedly sold around 50,000 units and was only on the shelves for about six months. The term “smartphone” was coined a year after the Simon’s release when Ericsson released a prototype device with this moniker in 1995. Source, Source

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