Google Earth Arrives on the iPad [PICS]

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In addition to offering native iPad support, Google Earth 3.0 also adds a road layer for the iPad and the iPhone 3GS. Testing the app on our 3G iPad, we found that the built-in GPS unit worked quite well when determining our exact location, and that the optional tilt function was great for controlling the axis of the globe to pinpoint location and find out additional information.

If you've never used Google Earth before, think of it like a giant scalable world map that has the added benefit of not only Street View and terrain indicators, but also pulls in information from Wikipedia, photos added by other users, and the locations of businesses and Google Places.

Our only real complaint is that we got an "Out of Memory" message a few times while testing the app. This is the first time we've seen this message in more than two months of frequent iPad usage, and while we imagine it's because the constant redrawing of satellite and Street View imagery is taxing on the iPad's available memory, this is still something we hope Google can address in a future update.

You can check out our gallery to get an idea of what the app looks like on the iPad.

What do you think of Google Earth for the iPad? Let us know!

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