Google Earth For Mac

If you've never used Google Earth, it's Google's "3D interface to the planet". OK, they lie a bit: it isn't really 3D, though you can "tilt" your view so it almost looks that way, and in some areas you can get 3D drawings of major buildings.. and it isn't really the whole planet, or at least not an up to date accurate version - the satellite views are a few years old and the overlays (road names, businesses, etc) are sometimes out of date or skewed. But even with all that, it's neat, it's fun, and if you don't like it, you are a lot more grumpy than I.

And now (after a long wait), you can get it for Mac. Well, they do warn that

    * Desktop computers older than 4 years old may not be able to run it.
    * Notebook computers older than 2 years old may not be able to run it.
 

But my three year old Mac iBook runs it fine, and actually much more smoothly than my wife's PC. On her XP box, graphics draw a little slowly and often fall behind - on the Mac, I can just hold down the arrow key and "fly".

You can get extra features with paid versions of Google Earth, though apparently those aren't ready for Mac quite yet. I've said before that I think Google errs in giving more support to Windows versions: if I ran the place, I'd put out Mac and Linux versions first, and then Windows.

Oh well. If they don't want to help encourage switching from Windows, that's unfortunate. I'm not saying hold back very long; just delay Windows versions a week or two. Give 'em that queasy stomach feeling..

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Thu Jan 19 02:10:26 2006:   FloralMike


Yikes - it must be a typo. Your "wife's XP box" ? You force her to endure such treatment, while you enjoy the comforts and freedom of a MAC. <grin>





Thu Jan 19 10:54:05 2006:   TonyLawrence


Force her? Yeah, right: http://aplawrence.com/MacOSX/hatemac.html



Wed Jun 14 22:08:58 2006:   TonyLawrence


New, higher res beta is out and it has a Linux version..

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