News

We’ve been enjoying the wonderful Google Earth on Android for a year or so now, but Google isn’t one to rest on its laurels, particularly when the number of Android tablets is set to explode over the coming year. With that in mind, good ol’ Goog has taken its Android Earth offering, smiled smugly to itself, and optimised it for the larger screen real estate that tablets have over their smartphone brethren.

The update Earth app apes the desktop version in that it adds textured 3D buildings, Street View tours, an Action Bar for simplified navigation and the ability to fly to a location.

And while flying around the Colosseum, for example, you can browse photos taken by other users while still keeping the Roman eyesore landmark firmly in view.

Google’s official blog had this to say on the subject of Google Earth on tablet versus smartphone:

“Moving from a mobile phone to a tablet was like going from a regular movie theatre to IMAX. We took advantage of the larger screen size, including features like content pop-ups appearing within Earth view, so you can see more information without switching back and forth between pages.”

Google Earth for Android is available for devices running Android 2.1 and above, but the new tablet design has been created specifically for devices running Android 3.0 (Honeycomb)

To download or update Google Earth, head to m.google.com/earth in your device’s browser or grab it from Android Market.

Via Google blog