Google Earth now available for the iPhone

(cross posted with the Google LatLong Blog)

The world just got a little bit smaller. Google Earth is now available for the iPhone and iPod touch, allowing you to fly to the far reaches of the world from the palm of your hand. Since we launched Google Earth for the desktop in 2005, weve had over 400 million unique downloads, and people from around the world have used it to view their house, research travel destinations, learn how to make the world a better place, find local businesses, and view geo-located photos. Now, with a free download from the iTunes App Store, you can fly through the same 3D immersive world of Google Earth youve come to love, without having to fire up your desktop computer.


Check out this video tour to see Google Earth for the iPhone in action:



Not only is having Google Earth on your iPhone convenient, but the touch interface is a very natural way to interact with the Earth. Just swipe your finger across the screen and you fly to the other side of the globe; tilt your phone and your view tilts as well. You can pinch to zoom in or out, or just double tap with one finger to zoom in and two fingers to zoom out. We also integrated the My Location feature, so with a touch of a button, you can fly to where you are in the real world on your phone. In addition, we have over eight million Panoramio photos, which are geo-located photos of places, and you can view any and all of them from your iPhone. Besides being beautiful, high-quality pictures, theyre specifically of places, so you dont have to see some guys family on vacation in Thailand--you can see the beaches, the temples, all the things that give you a real sense of the place. Here is a nice shot of the Grand Palace that I found on my virtual tour of Bangkok.


All versions of Earth include search, and the iPhone version is no exception. You have access to the same great local search that you get with Google Maps, so you can search for places, businesses, and landmarks. With Google Earth you get to the full detail page for businesses, so you can get reviews, photos, user content, business hours, and other useful information. We also added a "search near me" feature, so with one touch you can find businesses near your location, without having to navigate there first or type in the name of the city. Looking for a good cafe when youre in Trento, Italy? Its a snap:


To get Google Earth on your iPhone, visit the App Store in iTunes or your iPhone, and search for "Google Earth."

Posted by Peter Birch, Product Manager, Google Earth

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Greenify App now Works on Non Rooted Devices – Helps you Hibernate Apps with Ease

For Android power users, especially those who are not afraid to root their beloved devices, a world of root-only apps becomes instantly available. One app which is particularly famous among root-users is Greenify. The app provides users with the capability to hibernate apps running in the background, which helps to save precious processor resources as well as improving upon battery life. In combination with an Xposed module, Greenify can be used to hibernate system apps as well, without sacrificing push notification functionality. Click here for our guide on using Greenify.

For the general Android user, who does not want to root his device, Greenify in its previous avatar was useless. For the uninitiated, rooting is process wherein users of the Android ecosystem can gain privileged access or control of their devices. Rooting allows users read-write access to the system partition, which is useful when a user wants to make changes at the deepest level. Our guide on Android’s rooting terms will help you sort through the confusion.

The developers of Greenify have definitely given thought to this fact that most Android users were unable to use their app due to the root access requirement. The latest update to the app today does away with root access and now the app can be used on any Android device. Now you can finally stop Facebook from running in the background and draining your battery.

The only downside to the revocation of the root access requirement is that the apps are not automatically hibernated once you launch them. This is where you can use the Greenify widget which gets installed along with the app. Once you place the Greenify widget on your home screen, just tap it once in a while and it will hibernate all running apps and provide you with better battery life and overall better device responsiveness.

If the performance of your Android smartphone or tablet has started lagging since the time you bought it, and the RAM on your device is 1 GB or less; we would suggest that you give the Greenify app a go – especially since the basic functionality of Greenify is free. Do let us know in the comments below what you think of Greenify. Also for your convenience we have added the Play Store link to the app below.

The post Greenify App now Works on Non-Rooted Devices – Helps you Hibernate Apps with Ease appeared first on AndroidHeadlines.com |.

via AndroidHeadlines.com | http://www.androidheadlines.com/2014/01/greenify-app-now-works-non-rooted-devices-helps-hibernate-apps-ease.html

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Micromax Canvas Turbo Mini with Android 4 2 now listed on company site

Micromax has finally introduced the Canvas Turbo Mini, which is now listed on the companys site, however, it has not yet disclosed pricing and availability details.

The Micromax Canvas Turbo Mini was also previously listed for Rs. 14,490 without availability at an e-commerce website, and the online retailer now notes a two-three business days delivery time. However, Micromax has yet officially announce the smartphone for the Indian market.

The Micromax Canvas Turbo Mini is the mini-variant of the companys first full-HD display smartphone, the Canvas Turbo, which was launched in October last year.

The Micromax Canvas Turbo Mini (A200) is a dual-SIM (GSM+GSM) device which runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean out-of-the-box. The official listing of the smartphone notes that the device supports one regular SIM, and one micro-SIM.

It comes with a 4.7-inch (720x1280 pixels) HD IPS display. The Canvas Turbo Mini is powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6582 processor with 1GB of RAM.

The Canvas Turbo Mini features 4GB of inbuilt storage, while is further expandable up to 32GB via microSD card. It sports an 8-megapixel rear camera with LED flash, while there is a secondary 5-megapixel front-facing camera.

On the connectivity front, the Canvas Turbo Mini includes 3G, Wi-Fi, Micro-USB, and Bluetooth. The yet-to-be-announced Micromax Canvas Turbo Mini packs an 1800mAh battery, which according to the listing, delivers up to 6.5 hours of talktime and up to 180 hours of standby time on 2G network. The smartphone also comes with some preloaded apps such as Games (Bubble X Slice and Catch a Mouse), Kingsoft, Hike, Opera Mini and M! Live.

Mobiles launched in January 2014

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