Last Wendesday, Google briefly pushed out a new version of Google Earth 4.2 with some minor bug fixes and one new feature. But, there were some problems and they pulled the update. The update as been re-released as Google Earth v 4.2.0198 (download the latest version here). This release mostly addresses some bugs from the first release of 4.2 on August 22nd (if you haven’t already read about 4.2’s new features – go here). But, there is one important new feature in this new release: the night sky mode now supports the SpaceNavigator! This means you can fly your way around the astrophotography with the handy SpaceNavigator (a 3D mouse you can buy which also works quite well in the normal mode of Google Earth).
Here are some notes on the fixes from the (release notes):
- Support for SpaceNavigator in Sky
- Spherical PhotoOverlays – there was a bug in the earlier release with spherical photooverlays. If you turned your view too far to the right or left, the image would flip. That has been fixed with this new release. A great example is this view inside a helicopter. Try it with the new version of GE 4.2.0196.
- Better Sky Movement – when you move between different placemarks in Sky, the flying between points is smoother.
- Fixed several crashes in PhotoOverlay
- Reverted “Restrict time display to folder” checkbox default to off
Thanks to GEB reader ‘smokeonit’ for the tip on the new release.