World Globe Software
3D Atlas 1.1
PROS: Beautiful, spinnable, zoomable globe; click-a-country, see-a-slide-show feature; 50 environmental movies.
CONS: Globe doesn't spin freely in all directions; small window; a few typos and mispronunciations.
COMPANY: EA World (415/571-7171).
LIST PRICE: $79.95.
MW Rating: ****
Small Blue Planet 2.0
PROS: Gorgeous satellite photography; new click-a-country, hear-the-language feature.
CONS: Slow; distracting blotchiness when a new region is viewed; no manual; cryptic interface.
COMPANY: Now What? Software (415/885-1689).
LIST PRICE: $59.95.
MW Rating: ***
Cartographers have struggled to depict the globe on a flat surface. If you simply flatten the sphere, the map is distorted. Small Blue Planet and 3D Atlas use multimedia to depict the globe on the flat surface of your monitor.
Small Blue Planet
As in its original version, at Small Blue Planet 2.0's heart are six dazzling photomosaics created from satellite shots of the earth's surface (see Reviews, July 1994). Version 2.0's new feature is sound: you can click on any of 70 countries to hear, pronounced in the native tongue, "Good morning," "I love you," or another phrase. It is written out in the appropriate alphabet. It's fantastic.
Unfortunately, many of version 1.2.1's shortcomings remain. The political map is still barren, showing only country boundaries and capitals--and a typographically disastrous information window covers up a third of the screen.
Also, when you scroll (in any of the modes), you see a blotchy patchwork of crude squares. If you're patient, the program repaints the quiltlike area until the whole screen shows high resolution. But you can't resize the full-screen window.
Small Blue Planet is further diminished by its tool palette, whose mysterious little icons have no labels. Neither the company's phone rep nor I could figure out, for example, exactly what the four dots on the magnifying-glass handle do--and there's no manual to explain.
3D Atlas
3D Atlas shows a real globe. Drag the cursor in any direction, and the globe spins. Keep zooming in, and the ground appears to rush toward you. Click anywhere to identify the country beneath your cursor or type the first few letters of its name. Double-click to hear the country's name pronounced, read information about it, and see a slide show of exquisite 16-bit color photos taken there.
Well-produced QuickTime movies tell of acid rain, global warming, and the like. There are computer-generated flyby movies of mountain ranges; time-lapse exhibits that show the ozone hole; a statistics mode that shows various countries' population, income, and other data; and a trivia game that tests your knowledge of currencies, flags, sights, and capitals.
There are frustrations. You can spin the globe infinitely on two axes, but you can only make it spin from pole to pole. The display window is only 4.5 inches square. And if the QuickTime narrator says "nuke-ular" one more time . . .
The Last Word
Every day, TV and newspapers show us glimpses of the earth: a map here, a photo there. Small Blue Planet offers superior satellite photos, but its interface and speed problems trip it up. 3D Altas, on the other hand, is rich, well designed, and fast; and it gives you a new way of thinking about this big blue planet.