Track Real-time Flights over the US
We teamed up with Flightwise.com and published a new, dynamically-updating KML file of commercial flights over the U.S. You can see the current location and altitude of thousands of flights in near real-time. Zoom into particular flights, see flight info (flight number, estimated arrival time and up-to-date flight path) and play back animations of flights in 3D. Visit the Earth Gallery to download the KML file and start tracking.

See the Ocean on your iPhone
With the latest release of Google Earth 3.1 for iOS, you can now explore underwater landscapes and terrain on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Dive below the ocean's surface to explore underwater canyons, or travel to the ocean's deepest point: the Mariana Trench. Once your underwater, just swipe the screen with two fingers to "look around." Google Earth 3.1 for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch is available now in the App Store, or navigate to http://m.google.com/earth in your mobile browser.

New Features for Geo-modeling
We recently released Google SketchUp 8 – a free product you can use to model 3D buildings for Google Earth. In version 8, we've added loads of new features including better integration with Google Building Maker to make it easier to model directly from Google's massive collection of satellite imagery, Street View photography and terrain data. With Google SketchUp 8 and Building Maker, you can collaborate with a community of geo-modelers to construct a 3D model of the world.

Update from the Tahina Expedition
Since May, Tahina has traveled through French Polynesia (Marquesas, the Tuamotus atolls, Tahiti, Moorea, and Bora Bora). It sailed 500 nautical miles upwind to watch the total eclipse of the sun on July 11th (see the GPS track). In August they sailed to the Cook Islands of Aitutaki and Rarotonga, the island nation of Niue, American Samoa, and are now in the Kingdom of Tonga. See useful tips for using Google Earth for sailors and other travelers. 'Til next time...

New and Updated Imagery
This month we added new and updated imagery, including high-resolution aerial updates for the USA, Mexico, Brazil, Poland, Spain, and Sweden. Many countries also received high-resolution satellite updates, including Angola, Fiji, Libya, Guatemala, Hungary, South Africa, Philippines, Tanzania, Turkey, Papua New Guinea, and more. Take a look at these changes and many more (marked in red) in our update posts here and here, or view this file directly in Google Earth. Don't forget you can use the View > Historical Imagery option to see imagery choices through the time slider.