Google Earth Hits The iPhone

I’ve made it no secret that Google Earth is one of my favorite computer programs. It’s crammed with all kinds of information and data about a nearly every place on the planet, and is a great tool for travelers looking for information on their next big destination. On top of that, it shows topography, trail maps, campsites, and much much more, depending on your needs. All for the low, low price of FREE!!

Yesterday, while surfing my favorite websites and catching up on tech news that I’d missed recently, I noticed that Google released a version of Earth for the iPhone, which of course, made me even happier. I downloaded this version, which is also free, and began to play with it.

The first thing I’ll say is that this is more like Google Earth Lite. It looks a lot like it’s desktop counterpart, and operates in much the same fashion, but it doesn’t even come close to having all the same features, nor is there as much data available at your fingertips. That said though, it does allow you to zoom in, pan about, and look at regions all over the world. You can even use the iPhone’s accelerometer to tilt your views around. It’s pretty cool having Earth with me in my pocket where ever I go, even if it’s quite slow on the iPhone’s EDGE network. It is, however, relatively speedy on WiFi, allowing you to navigate easily and look up information on a location through Wikipedia.

If you don’t already owning an iPhone, the apps like this one keeps making it more enticing. It’s incredibly fun to play with, and you can check it out in action in the video below.

Kraig Becker

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