Google just released its popular Google Earth geographical software for the iPhone on Sunday, October 26, 2008. Google has jumped head-in to the world of iPhone apps with this very responsive, easy to use, and intelligent map app.
Google Earth is a free download, which is not surprising, as the PC and Mac versions are free as well. The iPhone version, unlike the full-fledged computer versions, do not have any advertisements built in (yet).
You may ask yourself, “What is the actual purpose of this application?” Well, I can’t exactly answer that - it’s mostly for exploring. It is helpful when wandering around a big city. It can also be useful in finding nearby places to eat, as Google Earth will put red pushpins on the map after you do a search. Although there are other apps like Urban Spoon that do a better job of this.
The auto locate feature was fairly accurate when I used it with my old generation iPhone. It was a few streets off, but pretty close. It would be more of a problem if I was lost and trying to find my way back. This feature should, however, work better with the newer iPhone 3G.
I was impressed by how responsive the app was to one and two finger touches. Google definitely spent their time making this app very user friendly. I love the rotation ability by using two fingers in a circular motion to rotate the map. It also makes use of the iPhone’s accelerometer to change the view up and down. The responsiveness of the app even on the sluggish Edge network is extremely impressive. I expected the app to take a long time to load the maps and zoom in, but it all happened very quickly.
It really is a beautiful application in the sense that it is extremely polished and free of the errors and crashes that plague other iPhone apps.
Google Earth, although lacking in the area of pragmatics, is a fun, free app that is worth downloading. At the very least, it is a great tool to show off to your friends how versatile and powerful the iPhone actually is.
