Got an E-mail from a GEB reader (Mike from Sydney, Australia) who said there is a new version of GE 4 available. I checked, and he’s right. The new version on the PC is 4.0.1657 – on the Mac is it 4.0.1658 – Linux version is 4.0.1660. If you do a “Check for Updates Online” it will NOT find this new version at the moment. But, if you download from the Google download site here you will get the new version. Here’s a summary of a few of the changes and fixes from the release notes:
- Language selection can now be done from the Options/Preferences under the “General” tab. Choices are English, Spanish, French, Italian, and German.
- You can now choose which way the mouse-wheel zooms under the “Navigation” tab in the options (hurray!)
- Improved memory management, does not require as much memory
- Automatic setting of memory cache based on machine RAM (improves performance)
- Fix to a problem where search/layer/places panes were missing if you had them turned off in GE 3 (I had that problem with my Mac version)
You can see the full list if you select the “Release Notes” option under the “Help” menu after you install the new version. There are several other critical fixes and a few other features added. The release notes on the web site haven’t been updated yet. For those who didn’t know, there are also GE 4 Plus and Pro (beta) versions for the Mac now (but, not Linux yet). Thanks for the tip Mike!
[10-July: Here’s the official Google announcement on the new beta.]
About Frank Taylor
Frank Taylor started the Google Earth Blog in July, 2005 shortly after Google Earth was first released. He has worked with 3D computer graphics and VR for many years and was very impressed with this exciting product. Frank completed a 5.5 year circumnavigation of the earth by sailboat in June 2015 which you can read about at Tahina Expedition, and is a licensed pilot, backpacker, diver, and photographer.
Linux version is 4.0.1660
Finally! Being able to change the way the mousewheel zooms. Google Earth has always been backwards from every other program I have in this regard.
This featuree alone is worth re-downloading it.
good
This is like so awesome. Now instead of going to places so i can see them i just have to go to google earth and i can see everything. This is just so AWESOME to put in another way!
Linux version is 4.0.1660
How do I download Google earth 4.0.1658 My computer won’t support 4.3
My I-Mac 10.3.9 requires version 4…where do I download that older version? —Thank you.
Have downloaded 4.3 and 4.2 for linux and find that both crash SuSe10.2 and 10.3 back to the login screen. I recall that an older version ran on SuSe 10.0 but don’t recall the version and Google only have 4.2 and 4.3 mentioned on there site now. Any suggestions