Quick Blast: Google Earth on the iPad

Posted on June 16th, 2010. Written by Jerry.

Tuesday, Google released Google Earth 3.0 for the iPhone and iPod touch.  Like many pre-existing apps, Google has opted to release a universal binary for use on the iPad.  Most notably, the iPad version features full resolution imagery which just looks sweet!

Google Earth 3.0 introduces a new Roads layer which is available on the iPad and iPhone 3GS along with the previous layers for Places, Businesses, Panoramio Photos, Wikipedia, Borders, and Terrain.  The iPad’s large screen really brings the terrain view to life when used with the Auto Tilt function.  However, be sure to enable only the layers you need, as I found if you have all layers selected, the app really bogs down quite a bit.

I spent a few minutes “flying” through mountains and valleys all over the globe, and the imagery is just stunning.  A great place to start was Matterhorn, as seen in the apps screenshots via the App Store.  Everything almost feels alive as you navigate around.  I would assume we are likely to see more leveraging of the iPad’s processing power in future updates such as a Buildings Layer similar to that of the desktop version.

The iPad is a much more appropriate platform for Google Earth in my opinion, not only due to its size or resolution, but the horsepower you get with the A4 chip.  With the iPhone 4 release upon us, we can rest assured that the same level of performance the iPad provides, will be matched, possibly even surpassed.  Though, I’m not quite sold on using Google Earth on a smaller device – yet.

Google Earth 3.0 is a FREE download available now in the App Store.