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Google Earth on iPhone?

What is the benefit of this App??? The iPhone already has Google maps built in... :confused: Can someone enlighten me on this or is it just a publicity move by Google. Seems odd that they are developing for the iPhone right after releasing their own attempt at a smartphone. Clearly shows their devotion to their own products. :rolleyes:
 
equlizer said:
I also read this and sounds kind of scary that they can use all the information in your phone and its not googles fault or responsibility due to 3rd party blah blah. I un-installed it right away. I might as well say "hey, install cameras in my house and keep an eye on me just in case" :rolleyes:
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Wouldn't that violate the SDK requirements if it did that?
 
alchemistmuffin said:
expect Apple to turn on the KILL SWITCH soon, as soon as Apple sends Google the cease and desist letter for leaving Apple's OWN maps app, which by the way, now HAS STREET VIEW....
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That's probably when google would throw the kill switch on Apple's map app, which google made and licensed to them. Duh.
 
I'm disappointed in you people.

Six pages and not one "The world in the palm of my hand" joke.:D Although someone came close with a "world at my fingertips" comment.
 
works great!

I had no crashing problems with google earth, but I always restart my iphone after installing a new app. Haven't had an app crash since I've got into that habit.

Google Earth works really well, though I was only testing it over wi-fi. I was also impressed at how fast the panoramio images pop up when you tap them.

I wish Google would make an easy way to import geotagged-flickr photos into panoramio, or that they would just allow geotagged flickr photos to appear in google earth. Don't want to have to move my photos from flickr to panoramio.

As for the "what will I use this for" question. . . probably just entertainment and showing off. It's free, and awesome. You can look anywhere on Earth at any time, and now you can do that on the bus.

Man sometimes I'm just amazed at technology. Imagine telling someone just 100 years ago that, in 100 years, they would be able to hold a tiny device that allows them to view the entire Earth, completely photographed by orbiting spacecraft, in the palm of your hand. Amazing.
 
alchemistmuffin said:
expect Apple to turn on the KILL SWITCH soon, as soon as Apple sends Google the cease and desist letter for leaving Apple's OWN maps app, which by the way, now HAS STREET VIEW....
Click to expand...

What are you talking about? "Apple's OWN maps app"?? ...Google have just made a variation of their own free pre-installed iPhone app. It's all good as far as apple are concerned.
 
Clete2 said:
Wow, 5 minutes in that killed my phone.... and the downloading it over Edge. That too :p.
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Just been Earthing for about 45 mins, surprisingly with very little battery drain.
 

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This is a neat app, but what's the point? Seriously, can anyone give a practical application of how they might use this in real life to solve some sort of problem?
 
littlewaywelt said:
This is a neat app, but what's the point? Seriously, can anyone give a practical application of how they might use this in real life to solve some sort of problem?
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oh man, if that's your standard, say goodbye to about 95% of the app store.
 
DigMe said:
From the department of redundancy department...
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I don't see why my statement was redundant?
I understand it would take up a good amount of space on the iPod, but for some of us iPod touch users, it would be nice.

I'm not sure but I don't think even GPS units have huge memory in them, even with all of their maps built in.
 
It's amazing that people are questioning the usefulness of Google Earth on the iPhone/iPod touch.

Yet they'd almost line up to download iBeer or some other absolutely useless worthless piece of code that does nothing more than give a laugh or two for a few seconds time...

I mean really, what is it with some of you. Google Earth? Useless? Pishaw.

Works fine here on an iPt 1st gen with 2.1 on it, no issues so far and all I have at home is a crappy old 11b router, go figure. :p
 
br0adband said:
It's amazing that people are questioning the usefulness of Google Earth on the iPhone/iPod touch.
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I wouldn't say it was useless. The point is however, for many folk, myself included, is that it doesn't really do anything that Google Maps doesn't do. And we've had that on the iPhone for ages already.
From what i've seen, the images are even the same. Plus the Google Maps app has the benefit of road mapping etc.
All Google Earth offers above it is, erm, hmm, tilt? And not that much else.

As I say, it's not bad at all. But we basically had it already, albeit in a slightly different form. So I don't quite see why folks get quite so excited about Google Earth for the iPhone.
 
Artofilm said:
I don't see why my statement was redundant?
I understand it would take up a good amount of space on the iPod, but for some of us iPod touch users, it would be nice.

I'm not sure but I don't think even GPS units have huge memory in them, even with all of their maps built in.
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"self-contain in itself" is redundant (paraphrased). if it's self contained then there is no need to indicate "in itself". Just being silly. I wasn't making a comment about your point. That's why I only quoted that one line. Sorry for the silly confusion.
 
I installed Google Earth minutes after I read it was available. 1st gen phone, runs surprisingly well. Love it on all the other computers in the house, I'm amazed it's on the iPhone now, too. Between this and x-plane I'll be less productive than ever!

John B.
 
Somewhat OT: Google Earth and stability

I noticed a lot of reviews complaining of stability regarding Google Earth. I find this irksome as the more I research the issue (my 3D app fell victim to this issue as well) I've come to realize that this has little to do with the stability of the app one is running (be it Google Earth or say Bugdom 2) and more to do with the background apps the iPhone has running when the app is opened.

It's all starting to really make sense. The iPhone has no swap and therefore to make memory available to the foreground app, it asks (and then makes) background apps close. All of these background apps are Apple written or Apple endorsed. But that's just it. As the iPhone tries to clear up memory for the foreground app, if the background app does something unexpected in closing, it takes the foreground app (and in severe cases the entire iPhone) with it.

There is little iPhone developers can do to prevent this from happening. The best solution this far is to allocate memory slowly in small chunks, allowing as much garbage collection to take place in between allocations as possible. This "improves stability", but if the memory requirements for any given app are high enough, stability issues will rear their ugly head.

This I think is central to Apple's policy of not allowing applications to run in the background. Stability is already affected by the Apple written apps on their behavior when forced to close. Letting user written apps do the same would only compound the problem exponentially.
 
Its OK but hard to use. I can't figure out what the tilt the iphone does. Yes I see the map changing but I can't control what it does or figure out what its suppose to do.

It's all a little fiddely.

Yes OK I suppose.
 
Not Available

I wonder why it is not available in the Polish App Store. Or Hungarian. Or Russian. Or Israeli. Or many others.

I mean, really, there is a whole wide world outside the United States.
And Google Maps team should know that, they're making maps of it, after all... ;)
 
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