Source: Xinhua

10-28-2008 15:46

BEIJING, Oct. 28 (Xinhuanet) -- Hold the whole world in your hand? It's not a dream after Google on Monday released its Google Earth application for the iPhone and iPod Touch through Apple's iTunes Store.

Chief Almir Surui from the Surui-Paiter Indigenous people of Brazil, attends the launch of the new Google Earth Outreach programme in London April 10, 2008. (Xinhua/ Reuters File Photo)

Google Earth application for the iPhone delivers a feature-packed globe-trotting experience that’s almost on par with the desktop version of the software. It's free, like Google Earth for desktop computers.

Satellite and aerial images of Earth's surface are stitched together to give users a continuous 3D map of the globe -- redefining what it means to have the "whole world in your hand."

Google’s Local Search is integrated into the application, allowing users to search for a business or address and fly directly to that spot on the virtual globe. And, Geo-tagged Wikipedia articles and Panoramio are overlaid on the map, making location-based content discovery a breeze!

With support for the iPhone's multi-touch display, moving around the Google Earth iPhone application's 3D maps is actually a notch more intuitive than the desktop variant. Rather than relying on mouse-clicks to control zoom-level, map rotation, and tilt-perspective, iPhone users can zoom, rotate, and move the map with double- and single-finger inputs.

And, with built-in accelerometer support, Google Earth for the iPhone allows the user to control their 3D perspective by simply tilting the iPhone. Tilting the iPhone changes the Google Earth map perspective, bringing terrain to life in full 3D!

Google Earth for the iPhone is said to work quite well with a 3G data connection, but the application's responsiveness isn't perfect on a first-generation iPhone according to media reports. It's not quite as graphically fluid as some of the iPhone games.

 

Editor:Yang Jie