Comments on: Google Earth brings virtual tourism to iPhone

The Internet giant releases an iPhone version of its geographic exploration software. And with multitouch and GPS, the interface is better than a PC's.

[dhassler]

A search on the iTunes store doesn't turn up this app. Is it not publicly released yet, or am I just being dumb? Does somebody have a link to it?

[Shankland]

Google told me the global rollout has begun in the Australia App Store. Presumably it will gradually spread to other locations, but not necessarily immediately.

[dhassler]

I see that it is now in the US App Store.

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=293622097&mt=8

[Matty-D]

Dido dhassler, just searched iTunes App store and nothing came up. I even went to google's page on iTunes and only their mobile app was there. WTH?

[mihal1]

Here, here. Zero luck finding the app in the iTunes store.

[mihal1]

I meant hear, hear.

[John_Conru]

Earthscape is now free as well, plus offers photos & more.

[pase121]

I found the app. Very nice but a little buggy, it shuts down periodically if you try and bring up some of the Wikipedia reference points. First on my wish list would be to port the 3D building models from its computer counterpart. Shankland is right about the processing speed though, very fast...I'm impressed. Hopefully the next update will be a little more stable.

[bonesbautista]

I hope Google offers a paid version of the app - I'd rather avoid the advertising, just like in my paid Premier Google Apps account. Ads are taking up too much bandwidth at times and when ad servers hang, applications crawl far too often.

[Shankland]

Google certainly reserved the right for ads later, but there are none now.

[Jester_Paul]

Just got the app. I am extremely surprised on how well it updates on my edge connection. The "tilt" got a little annoying, but glad to see that I can turn it off.

bonesbautista, no ads spotted so far.

[crazeduser]

I downloaded the app to my 1G iPod touch, but it crashes when I try to run it.. anyone else experiencing this?

[Shankland]

I had two crashes from which my iPhone 3G recovered. After the second, I rebooted my phone (second time in about 1 month and a half) and it's been working fine since. Google Earth pushes the virtual memory envelope, so perhaps it does better with the phone in a more orderly state.

[LunaticSX]

"when you click the address of a business, the iPhone will intercept the command and show it on the Google Maps application so you can get directions. Personally, I'd prefer a more direct link to Google Maps, though."

Why duplicate code? The built-in Maps application already provides directions, geo-location, the ability to add a location to your address book, etc. Plus as time goes on the built-in app is being updated more and more (like street view and walking/bus/subway directions in the beta 2.2 OS), so it makes more sense just to link directly to it and get the benefits of its improvements immediately.

What's really needed is that the iPhone needs to do a better job of detecting text that looks like an address in e-mails, like Mail.app does wuth Apple's Data Detector technology, and hot link that to the built-in Mapps app, as well.

[Rigdupp]

Is there a way to disable the Wikipedia and geotags? Sometimes I would like a clean view.

[8th_Continent_Project]

Stephen we appreciate your review of the Google Earth application - we often write about how space technology has made its way into everyday consumer products and the GE app for the iPhone is a perfect example. See www.8cproject.wordpress.com.