Google Earth, the popular mapping service, has been optimised for Android Honeycomb devices. A 3D mapping software has especially been optimised for Honeycomb, which means for the first time buildings could be viewed in three dimensions on Android tablets as well.
Peter Birch, a Google product manager, wrote in a blog post, “When we launched Google Earth in 2005, most of us were still using flip phones. At the time, the thought of being able to cart around 197 million square miles of Earth in your pocket was still a distant dream. Last year, that dream came to fruition for Android users when we released Google Earth for Android.”
He added, “We’ve added support for fully textured 3-D buildings, so your tour through the streets of Manhattan will look more realistic than ever. There’s also a new action bar up top, enabling easier access to search, the option to ‘fly to your location’ and layers such as Places, Panoramio photos, Wikipedia and 3-D buildings.”
The blog post likens the movement from smartphone to the tablets to watching a movie in theatre to IMAX theatre.
Surprisingly, the iPad version of Google Earth was available for the users earlier whereas the Honeycomb version has been launched now.