[Joe Johaneman]

http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/arch...ne_release.html

Product Category: iPhone App
Developer: Google
Where to Buy: iTunes App Store
Price: Free
System Requirements: iPhone 2G or 3G
Specifications: Google Earth requires 9 megabytes of free space for the application. You should also have some extra space available for caching.

Pros:

• The information overlays are informative and interesting;
  
• Very responsive over WiFi and 3G;
  
• Fun and easy to use

Cons:

• Slow under the EDGE network;
  
• Information Overlay icons are too small for thick fingers

Summary:
Google Earth for the iPhone is a fun and mildly addictive application. Its incredibly intuitive interface makes it a joy to use.

 

Satellite Mapping
Google Earth has always been a fun and interesting desktop application, and now it's available for the iPhone. The iPhone and Google Earth are a natural match. For those not yet aware of the application, it allows a user to view satellite imagery of the Earth. While that doesn't sound particularly exciting, the manner in which the maps are presented is almost magical. This free app starts with the familiar shape of the globe. Using your fingers, you can rotate the globe, and then you can zoom in by double tapping anywhere on the globe. Finger pinching will zoom in and out of the globe. The app is also accelerometer driven. Tilting the phone changes the angle at which you are viewing the map.

I tested Google Earth on an iPhone 2G and an iPhone 3G over the EDGE network, WiFi and 3G (obviously, 3G couldn't be tested on the iPhone 2G). The application is extremely responsive over WiFi and 3G. As would be expected, I noticed significant lag over the EDGE network, but it was responsive enough to be usable.

Information Overlays

Figure 1:  Indianapolis with some of the points of interest highlighted.

The maps have information overlays that can be toggled on or off in the Settings menu. There are currently two overlays: Wikipedia and Panoramio. The Wikipedia overlay (which show up as tiny WikiPedia icons) returns articles about landmarks, and Panoramio (which shows up as small blue squares) returns photos that were geotagged near that area. I found the icons for the information overlays were too small for my thick fingers and so I often had trouble hitting the right icon when several were clustered together.

Besides the information overlay, there are four icons, one in each corner. The top left icon is search, and like Google maps, you can search for stores, restaurants and landmarks near any location. The top right icon is a compass, and tapping it will align the map with north at the top. The bottom left icon determines your current location using either GPS or cell tower triangulation and then automatically rotates and zooms there. The final icon in the bottom right hand corner opens the settings dialog.

Conclusion
Google Earth for the iPhone is a useful, fun and intuitive app. It's a natural fit to the iPhone's touch screen. While the information overlay icons are too small, and the Edge network response is often slow, these were minor in comparison to the features and usability of this free application.

Joe Johaneman is a programmer and web designer in Honesdale, PA and is also an amateur photographer and graphic designer.

 

[Joe Johaneman]

http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/arch...ne_release.html

Product Category: iPhone App
Developer: Google
Where to Buy: iTunes App Store
Price: Free
System Requirements: iPhone 2G or 3G
Specifications: Google Earth requires 9 megabytes of free space for the application. You should also have some extra space available for caching.

Pros:

• The information overlays are informative and interesting;
  
• Very responsive over WiFi and 3G;
  
• Fun and easy to use

Cons:

• Slow under the EDGE network;
  
• Information Overlay icons are too small for thick fingers

Summary:
Google Earth for the iPhone is a fun and mildly addictive application. Its incredibly intuitive interface makes it a joy to use.

 

Satellite Mapping
Google Earth has always been a fun and interesting desktop application, and now it's available for the iPhone. The iPhone and Google Earth are a natural match. For those not yet aware of the application, it allows a user to view satellite imagery of the Earth. While that doesn't sound particularly exciting, the manner in which the maps are presented is almost magical. This free app starts with the familiar shape of the globe. Using your fingers, you can rotate the globe, and then you can zoom in by double tapping anywhere on the globe. Finger pinching will zoom in and out of the globe. The app is also accelerometer driven. Tilting the phone changes the angle at which you are viewing the map.

I tested Google Earth on an iPhone 2G and an iPhone 3G over the EDGE network, WiFi and 3G (obviously, 3G couldn't be tested on the iPhone 2G). The application is extremely responsive over WiFi and 3G. As would be expected, I noticed significant lag over the EDGE network, but it was responsive enough to be usable.

Information Overlays

Figure 1:  Indianapolis with some of the points of interest highlighted.

The maps have information overlays that can be toggled on or off in the Settings menu. There are currently two overlays: Wikipedia and Panoramio. The Wikipedia overlay (which show up as tiny WikiPedia icons) returns articles about landmarks, and Panoramio (which shows up as small blue squares) returns photos that were geotagged near that area. I found the icons for the information overlays were too small for my thick fingers and so I often had trouble hitting the right icon when several were clustered together.

Besides the information overlay, there are four icons, one in each corner. The top left icon is search, and like Google maps, you can search for stores, restaurants and landmarks near any location. The top right icon is a compass, and tapping it will align the map with north at the top. The bottom left icon determines your current location using either GPS or cell tower triangulation and then automatically rotates and zooms there. The final icon in the bottom right hand corner opens the settings dialog.

Conclusion
Google Earth for the iPhone is a useful, fun and intuitive app. It's a natural fit to the iPhone's touch screen. While the information overlay icons are too small, and the Edge network response is often slow, these were minor in comparison to the features and usability of this free application.

Joe Johaneman is a programmer and web designer in Honesdale, PA and is also an amateur photographer and graphic designer.

 

[Ricciardi3G]

I really love the app. It is smooth, fluid, and functional. The "Auto-Tilt" function is pretty amazing - how you can simply tilt your device to scan the horizon, etc. The geo-tagging addition is genius. Glad that Apple/Google came together to put such a powerful app in my pocket! (I mean, T-Mobile's G1 can't even do this! At least yet!)

PS - Kudos on the site. Great idea. I'd be an Apple "fanboy" if I could afford to be; simply based on their aesthetics, functionality, stability, and overall style. I've never had a problem with any Apple product I've ever owned and the only complaint I can record to date is battery life after a couple years of use...

"Apple" is hard "core"...

[ucfgrad93]

Thanks for the review. This will be the next app I load on my iPhone.

[Tim Williamson]

It's a fun app to play around with and really shows off the power of the iPhone, but for practical use, Google Maps does what I need it to do. I guess I don't particularly see the advantage of Earth of Maps.

[Joe Johaneman]

Originally Posted by Tim Williamson

It's a fun app to play around with and really shows off the power of the iPhone, but for practical use, Google Maps does what I need it to do. I guess I don't particularly see the advantage of Earth of Maps.

For me, the advantage is the information overlays. Being able to view maps AND call up a Wikipedia article about landmarks in the area without switching over to Safari is useful. But, each person has his or her own definition of useful, :-)

[Bob12]

Just curious, Joe . . . have you tried Earthscape for the iPhone? It's VERY similar to Google Earth and is also free.

[Joe Johaneman]

Originally Posted by Bob12

Just curious, Joe . . . have you tried Earthscape for the iPhone? It's VERY similar to Google Earth and is also free.

No, I haven't tried it, but I'll give it a look. I wasn't even aware of it until you pointed it out. Thanks!