Google Earth 6
You’ve got the whole world in your hands—or at least on your Mac—with Google Earth. Google has bumped the globetrotting software to version 6, which is now available for Intel-based Macs only. The new version adds access to a variety of views, including Street View, 3D trees, and historical imagery. Other additions include ground-level navigation, 3D measurements, and improvements to the Tour Recorder. Google Earth requires Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard or later. Note that Google Earth 6 turns out to be a beta, something that wasn’t initially clear; it may be worth waiting for an official release to upgrade. (Free, 53.3 MB)
Note this is a beta release. The latest stable release is still 5.2.1.1588
Drat, didn't see that. Normally we don't bother covering betas.
I rely on Google Earth for business and use it a lot every day. I find this release painfully sluggish. Generally has an unstable feel to it, particularly in transitions to and from street view. More than half the time, it crashed upon close. User interface is even more fussy than version 5. New features do not enhance the experience or add useful information for me, so I am sticking with version 5 for at least awhile--until maybe a half dozen or more version 6 cough, cough "beta" builds are released. I do not know if versions 5 and 6 can coexist on a machine.
Out of curiousity, in what way do you rely on Google Earth for business?
I own a company that has a department that does roof and gutter cleaning. We can tell enough from Google Earth and Bing maps so that we often don't need to visit the location at all in order to qualify the location (i.e. decide if we want to give a quote). About half the time we can give a quote directly. Saves gobs of gas and time.
Google Earth 6 won't launch on my computer -- it shows the start-up tip screen in front and then crashes before the tip even displays. I'm running 10.6.5.