Explore and learn

Google Earth not only displays satellite images but it also includes terrains and 3D reconstruction of buildings. You can look for directions and businesses, just like in Google Maps and pinpoint areas or draw on maps straight in Google Earth.

Google Earth includes a very wide, and constantly increasing library of layers, which you can add to the map to enrich your experience. You'll find all sorts of information, from historical landscapes to national parks, regions where you can find endangered species or tourist spots. Google Earth will also showcase more news related information such as forest fires or tsunamis.

But Google Earth is not limited to terrain, and with every new version, it adds new sources of satellite imagery and information about other areas in the world. Say you're really into stars; then you should turn to the Sky mode and navigate among the constellations. Or, if you prefer exploring the seas, enable the Water surface option and learn all the secrets about oceans and marine creatures. Feeling more adventurous? Select the Moon or the Mars options and take a walk in space without leaving your easy chair. What's more, Google Earth also lets you travel in time by providing you with a new Historical Imagery function that allows you to see the evolution of certain locations during the past few years.

Navigation

Moving around in Google Earth is incredibly intuitive thanks to the multiple navigation tools. Some areas will show less information than others, and Google Earth is known to use up a substantial amount of bandwidth, but it remains a fascinating piece of software

Conclusion

Google Earth is as of yet an unequaled application. Browse around the world, zoom into streets, gaze at the stars or dive into the ocean. Millions of possibilities.

Download Google Earth 7.1.1.1580 Beta in Softonic

WeatherBug is a great weather application that helps you find out current and future weather conditions. The homepage is simple and doesn't require any scrolling or swiping to reveal more information. You get current weather conditions, conditions by the hour, a 3 day forecast, notifications, and maps, all from the home screen.

Notifications in WeatherBug are a great feature. You can set it up to alert you for certain weather conditions. If it's raining, it'll pop up a notification, even when you're in another app. It's a shame that WeatherBug doesn't incorporate any weather news, which is handy for tracking big storms.

Maps is a welcomed feature in WeatherBug as it shows current conditions in an area. The map is responsive and you can toggle different types of information like satellite, humidity, pressure, and temperature.

It would have been nice to see some weather live streams and video content to see how weather conditions are around the world. The lack of live video streams and news seems like a missed opportunity for WeatherBug.

Still, WeatherBug provides a soild app for checking conditions and looking up forecasts. Just don't expect more than that.

Download WeatherBug for Windows 8 2.0.0.1 in Softonic

Imagine a desktop wallpaper that actually 'lives' in real time. That's exactly what the makers of EarthDesk have attempted, creating a live map of the globe that shows real time light and cloud conditions.

EarthDesk features three map views (Political, Natural Color and Living Earth Satellite), 11 projections, and 10,000 cities. You have many options that cover how the Earth is projected onto your desktop, the centering of the map, and how you want it to refresh. Note that EarthDesk does not install itself as a standalone application - it simply loads as a preference pane, from where you can administer it.

When you install the EarthDesk in your preference pane, you're presented with the configuration options. The first thing you need to do is choose a city to center it on in the Locations tab (your hometown location in other words). There are 10,000 to go through but fortunately you can search for them using the search box.

The Display tab is the most interesting as regards setup. In here, you can configure what kind of view you want to use, how far you want to zoom into the Earth and how close you want to see the clouds. Note that you can access the preferences at any time from the menu bar, where you'll see the EarthDesk icon although you'll have to activate this option in the actual preferences itself.

You'll have to experiment for quite a while to find the view that you like. One thing I definitely recommend however is zooming into the planet because it's a bit more interesting than seeing the globe as a whole (at least during the day anyway). The cloud formations you see are the actual clouds in the sky at any given moment and their movements update according to the time schedule you've specified.

All things considered, this isn't particularly interesting. There's a saying 'About as interesting as watching paint dry' - and 'watching clouds move' could be used in the way. I imagine that EarthDesk is more interesting at night when darkness falls and you start to cities light up. I also experienced problems stopping and starting Earth Desk - the second time I tried to start it, it simply wouldn't.

EarthDesk is an interesting desktop background for geographers, those keen on keeping an eye on weather movements in real time, or simply those that want a slightly more original desktop background.

Download EarthDesk 5.8.3 in Softonic

Earth3D enables you to have your own personal planetarium at home. Simply copy this tool to your hard drive – no installation required – and be ready to enjoy great views from our planet while sitting right in front of your computer.

Earth3D grabs spatial imagery from NASA, USGS, CIA and other resources and displays them on a simply-designed interface. You can change between different views and locations by using the categorized list on the left side of the interface, while viewing images themselves on the right side. While the virtual trip in Earth3D can be quite fun, bear in mind that this is no Google Earth, so don't expect to be able to see your home from outer space.

Earth3D features some interesting extras such as the ability to capture images or even record a small video while you're moving around the Earth or zooming in and out – just with your mouse. However, there's one big problem that prevented us from giving Earth3D a better score, and that is its incredible slowness when loading pictures.

Earth3D includes a beautiful collection of images from our planet in 3D perspective, but unfortunately takes way too long to display them.

Download Earth3D 1.0.5 in Softonic

Bing Maps (previously known as Microsoft Virtual Earth) combines local search with maps and aerial photography. Microsoft have included satellite imagery with maps in its local search results for quite some time but with Bing Maps, the display is focused primarily around maps and aerial views. You can zoom in and out of maps or images, and drag the images around within the display at leisure and the basic search interface is similar to MSN's local search with "what" and "where" forms to specify what you're searching for. In addition, text results for searches are displayed in floating popup windows on the left side of the display.

Aerial photographs are overlaid with labels, showing street names, landmarks, and other features, even including directional arrows for one-way streets plus permalinks saves a screenshot of everything open in Virtual Earth, including the map view location and search results.

It may not be in the same class as Google Earth but this is one of Microsoft's better efforts it has to be said.

Download Bing Maps in Softonic

EarthBrowser delivers a 3D model of the earth with constantly updating live meteroligical information to your desktop. Exploring the earth is fun and easy with a point-and-click interface that lets you rotate and zoom to any desired location. EarthBrowser's dynamic nature makes it an information resource that is useful and fascinating to use.

Highlights of the program include:

• Global weather forecasts for over 17,000 locations
• High resolution 1km/pixel satellite map of the Earth
• Live hurricane and tropical storm tracking
• Satellite cloud animations are updated every 3 hours
• Live earthquake map with magnitudes and links
• Live ocean buoy data for over 250 buoys
• Daily fire hotspot display
• Hundreds of dynamic webcams all over the globe
• Political borders/Tectonic plate boundaries
• Times in cities of all world time zones

Download EarthBrowser 3.2.1 in Softonic