Google Earth for iPhone released

By Leon Bailey on Mon 27 October 2008

This is one of those headline-says-it-all stories: Google Earth is available right now for the Apple iPhone.

If you’ve heard enough, then head right on over to the iTunes App Store to download it.

Not convinced? You’re not alone: not everyone here at Mobile Computer 'gets' Google Earth

Fortunately, he’s a lone soul and for the rest of the team, this is a product launch to get really excited about. Really, really excited. Why? Well, read on after the cut.

Look, we’re not big on hyperbole. But Google Earth on the desktop is a fantastic application. You don’t have to agree with us, but you’re wrong; and so too is our aforesaid Mobile Computer colleague. So, take a great Earth-exploration product designed for the desktop and pop in your pocket and you’ve got a definite win, right? Hmm... mostly.

The developers have implemented most of what you’d expect to find in an iPhone edition of Google Earth. There’s drag to pan, pinch or double-tap to zoom, finger-twist to rotate and, yes, accelerometer-powered tilt (replete with 3D terrain) and GPS location. Great on top of great. With some more great on top.

But it’s not all great. In this 1.0(.0) edition, control over layers and places is minimal to say the least (Wikipedia and Panoramio plots can be toggled and, er, that’s it) and – oh dear – the virtual globe is jerky. Not horrendously so, but jerky nonetheless (and yes, we’re running it over a clean, fast Wi-Fi connection). And touch controls are a bit unresponsive. But then that’s the iPhone experience generally, we reckon.

We also tried it over 3G (in good coverage areas, it works almost as well as Wi-Fi) and GPRS/EDGE (yep, it worked... pretty slowly, but it worked).

Concluding first impressions then? Download it now and take the day off work. We just have.

[Google Earth at the App Store and Google Mobile Blog]