Google Earth comes to iPhone?

by Julian Prokaza
on Mon 26 May 2008 5 Comments

Sadly, not just yet. But there’s a fantastic look to the future over at the Google Earth Blog, where Frank Taylor has posted a video of an Apple iPhone running a very Google Earth-like application.

The best bet is just to head right over there and enjoy the video for yourself but if you’re feeling lazy, then feel free instead to ogle our screen capture above. In fact, this isn’t Google Earth at all but a tech demo from a company called Earthscape. Gearthblog’s Taylor shot this video while being shown the demo by Earthscape’s CEO, Tom Churchill, at the 2008 Where 2.0 Conference in California a couple of weeks ago.

Now, remember this is not Google Earth running on an iPhone. But it is a very impressive show. Earthscape’s developers have embraced the iPhone’s accelerometers as a control mechanism for their little 3D Earth demo, meaning control is a simple case of tilting and turning the iPhone (not that you’d realise that immediately, as the sausage-thumbed Churchill seems to have no idea how best to finger an iPhone).

Of course, it should also be pointed out that, as things stand, there’d be no practical way to pipe to an iPhone the substantial amount of data that Google Earth sucks down. So it’s no surprise that Earthscape’s runs entirely locally. Still, it’s a great effort.

[via Google Earth Blog]

Originally published on www.mobilecomputermag.co.uk, now incorporated into Broadband Genie
© Dennis Publishing

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Comments

  • neutral

    by at 19:37 on 26 May 2008Report abuse

    very good

  • neutral

    by at 23:12 on 26 May 2008Report abuse

    or Apple could just get off its backside and provide flash support to use flashearth

  • neutral

    by at 00:52 on 27 May 2008Report abuse

    Leon: Thanks for the mention. As you observed, this development version of our software had difficulty detecting the double-tap event (due to an Open-GL issue we've since resolved) I may not be the world's most advanced iPhone user, but I'm really not as sausage-thumbed as you may have imagined ;-) One fact your readers may find of interest is that Earthscape uses only a little more bandwidth intensive than the 2D maps application on the iPhone -- and since Earthscape was designed to work in an intermittently connected environment, can also display imagery which was downloaded using your home or work broadband connection and transferred to your iPhone. While this will use some of your phone's storage, you'll get instant imagery loading and no network transfers -- with the fringe benefit that you'll be able to view maps even in locations without cell or wifi coverage. Even if you opt not to do so, however, 3G will still be plenty fast enough for a great user experience.Best Wishes,--Tom Churchill CEO, Earthscape

  • neutral

    by at 13:30 on 27 May 2008Report abuse

    Ah, Tom...Those thumbs look pretty meaty in the video but perhaps it's the camera angle, eh?Anyway, interesting words about the bandwidth requirements. Feel free to keep us updated with development progress and we'll pass the information on to our readers.Leon.

  • neutral

    by at 17:40 on 27 May 2008Report abuse

    it would be cool to see a navigation system inbuilt into the mapping software

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