Wednesday, January 11, 2006 2:16 PM PT Posted by Narasu Rebbapragada
Google Earth for Windows ends its beta-test period, just as the beta for Google Earth for Mac launches. Now Mac users can look up childhood residences and other world locales in the creepy close detail that only satellite imagery offers.
The system requirements for the Mac application are not small. You need Mac OS 10.4 (Tiger) to run it, and recommended requirements include a 1.5-GHz processor, 512MB of RAM, and 2GB of free disk space. (The minimum requirements list only a 500-MHz processor, 256MB of RAM, and 400MB of disk space.)
The new Google Earth Plus (with support for GPS devices) and Google Earth Pro (a pro-level app) are Windows only. No news yet on plans for Mac versions. For more information on Google Earth, click
here.
I've used Google Earth and find it to be pretty darn amazing. It's a great way to see the lay of the land prior to visiting just about anywhere. It was really fun to zoom in on my home and see it in such detail. I even found a new, much less crowded way to drive from home to work. Using this service is like being up in an airplane flying over an area. When I went to dinner the other night I used it to identify parking near the restaurant. It makes a great adjunct to GPS. It's wonderful.
Google Earth may be fine for those of you in the US of A but here in the land of Oz (Australia) we can't even look at a detailed look of our sixth largest city - Newcastle! Get yer act together Google!
what about south africa, please people i can t even see the road in Piet Retief SOut Africa
well if you haven't noticed Google didn't use all GPS taken photos from 2002, but only of all US cities and towns, and all the well known foreign countries, also again Google earth is using GPS photos from 2002 thats 4 years old, that why some things are missing.
Why would it require 10.4? What does it use that wasn't in 10.3.9?
the picture of my town 45 minutes south of cleveland, OH is from the 80s. where my house is now, there are ponds in google earth lol.
What about the Linux version?
When will it come out, if at all?
People whine and complain that their particular part of the world isn't shown well, but do they have any idea how difficult it really is to get satelite pictures from most of the world? Most companies or governments that have satelites in orbit aren't interested in taking pics from other countries for a piece of free software. Look at it this way: Feel good if you can view what you want, if not, then just wait a bit longer.