Google Earth for iPhone Review

Google Earth is finally available on iPhone. The options are limited compared to the desktop version, but it still offers a lot for you to play with. There are two functions that are unique to the iPhone version. Firstly, you can tilt your iPhone to adjust your view for mountainous terrain.

Here is a screen shot showing the area near Grand Canyon when you tilt your iPhone.

• Tip: You can create the tilting effect by using two fingers to swipe down the screen.

Secondly, you can use the Location feature to fly to your current location.

When you first start up Google Earth, you are presented with the screen of the 3D earth. There are four icons at four corners.

The top left icon lets you search Google Earth. Similar to Google Map, you can enter your search in different ways. You can enter intersection, area, landmark, contact, or zip code.

• Tip: There’s no mention on how do you enter intersection, so I tried different combination and finally got it to work. You have to enter intersection in this format: Street 1 & Street 2, City State.

The top right corner is a compass. It points to the north of the map. If you press it, it reset the current view to north-up view.

The lower left icon is for flying to the current location.

This is a screen shot of current location in Google Earth.

This is a screen shot of current location in Google Map for comparison.

The lower right corner is the options icon. It lets you change settings and there is a help section about how to use Google Earth for iPhone.

There are two overlays included: Wikipedia and Panoramio.

This is a screenshot showing both Wikipedia (W icon) and Panoramio (blue square icon) . When you touch the Wikipedia icon, it shows you the corresponding Wikipedia article.

When you touch the Panoramio icon, it shows you the photo taken at that location.

Overall, this is a nice application, definitely one of my favorites. If you have not downloaded it yet, here is the link.