Article by George Norman

On 24 Nov 2009

When Google announced Google Earth 5.1 Beta about two months ago, it focused on one specific area: speed and performance. Google Earth 5.1, even in Beta, would be faster than previous versions thanks to all the under the hood changes the development team made. Google Earth 5.1 has recently moved out of Beta and to the big leagues; it has been released as a final, stable software application.

So now that Google Earth 5.1 Final has been released, is there anything new to add? Apart from the speed and performance improvements, does it bring anything new to the table? The answer to that one is no…sort of. There is one new bit that wasn't there in the Beta, but Google Earth 5.1’s main focus remains on speed and performance.


“Two months ago, we released the beta version of Google Earth 5.1. The 5.1 release focused on one of our most important features: performance. The power of Google Earth is the seamless, immersive 3D fly-throughs that give you a sense of being "there," so we made a lot of adjustments under the hood to make flying around the globe faster and smoother. After a few more tweaks and bug fixes, we're proud to say that we're ready to remove the beta tag,” announced Product Manager with Google, Peter Birch.

So what is the new bit that wasn’t in the Beta? For Mac users, Google Earth 5.1 comes with the Google Earth browser plug-in (Windows users already had that). Thanks to the plug-in the user can explore Google Earth from within the browser – which for the Mac user is great, since in the past he had to install the plug-in separately.

In related news, the Mountain View-based search engine giant has recently released Google Earth 2.0 for the iPhone. The application’s highlights include:

• Enhanced map viewing options
  
• Browse locations, photos and businesses with ease
  
• Extended language support (31 in total)

A more detailed presentation of these highlights is available here.

If you would to get Google Earth 2.0 for iPhone, you can download it straight from the App Store here.
If you would like to get Google Earth 5.1, you can download it here.



Tags: Google, Google Earth 5.1

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