Google has released a version of its world visualization tool called Google Earth, which runs on the Apple iPhone. The application improves on its desktop counterpart by using the iPhone’s touch-screen navigation, location-sensing and tilt functions to help navigate the globe.

Google Earth is a tool that displays geographic data such as satellite imagery, maps, terrain and even the night sky. It has functions to allow users to ‘fly’ over any area in the world and view terrain from various angles and altitudes as they go.

The iPhone version of Google Earth is available for free from the iTunes application store. It was released yesterday evening in 18 languages and in 20 different countries.

The Google Earth iPhone application takes input from the iPhone’s touch-screen interface and adds a twist to its standard navigation. Not only can users drag a finger across the screen to pan and use a pinching motion to zoom in or out, they can also move their fingers in a circular motion to turn the view around and see the perspective behind them.

The application also takes advantage of the iPhone’s built-in location-sensing feature that uses GPS, Wi-Fi or cell tower triangulation to determine its location. This feature enables Google Earth to show a map of the user’s current location with the push of a button.

Google Earth for iPhone makes use of the accelerometer in the device to tilt the viewing perspective of the map. The tilt control can also be used to catch a view of the night sky from any location in the world.

Google has also included loads of contextual data from other sources into the display. Users can search for cities, landmarks and businesses using data from Google Maps. A Panaramio layer will plot geo-located photos on the map associated with the current view. The application will also display Wikipedia articles that denote their location on the map as well.

This is an impressively powerful application to run on a mobile device. It’s also one that requires large amounts of data to render the aerial perspectives. Users will want to check it out from either an area with excellent wireless coverage or, preferably, a Wi-Fi hotspot in order to obtain the best experience.

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Entry was posted on Monday, October 27th, 2008 at 8:50 am under Apple, Cell phones, Google, Navigation.

Read more entries by Dave Jeyes.
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