Google Earth Adds Oceans; Tommy’s Games; Google Tasks on iPhone

Time for your regularly scheduled list of stuff that I’ve found interesting in the last day or so…

Google Earth 5.0 Adds Oceans, More

Google Earth got updated to version 5.0 today, and gained a couple of nifty features: 3D imagery of ocean floors, historical imagery, which lets you see how an area has changed over time, and better ability to record audio and video “tours”.

And of course, it’s still free. More on the Google Lat-Long Blog. I wonder how long before these features trickle down to the iPhone version of Google Earth?

iPhone and Wii Games Coming from Tommy Refenes

Over on the Intel Software Network blog (where I work), Tommy Refenes, developer of the award winning threaded game Goo! gave us an update on two new projects he’s working on. First, an iPhone game called Beat!, which looks like a cross between Tap Tap Revenge and the old Simon game. Second, that he’s working with Edmund McMillen on Super Meat Boy, an upcoming WiiWare game were you play, um, a meat guy trying to rescue his girlfriend. I’ve been hearing lots of buzz about SMB (at Offworld and elsewhere), and have been looking forward to it. Now I’m even more excited that I know Tommy’s involved. Should be a great game!

8-bit Guitar Hero – Be a Lo-Fi Rock Star

Speaking of cool games, have you seen the 8-bit NES remake of Guitar Hero? If that’s not retro enough for you, there’s a text adventure version, too (I’m still trying to get that one to run in Plotz! on my iPhone).

Google Tasks on iPhone

I was pleasantly surprised to see Google release an iPhone interface to their Tasks feature (currently available to Gmail Labs users willing to put up with experimental quirkiness in return for new features).

I’ve been using Remember The Milk for tasks, which fits my requirement of being completely “in the cloud” (just like my Gmail, Google Reader, Google Calendar, etc.), and it’s way more robust (and has a very nice iPhone app), but I find that I don’t actually use RTM that much, and I bet I could get by with just Google Tasks now that it has an iPhone interface.

You can try it by going to http://gmail.com/tasks on your iPhone. More info available on the Gmail blog (found via Lifehacker)