MacBook Air 11.6 and Google Earth ?

[canofbeens]

I am considering making the switch from PC to Mac. The desktop switch is easy, I would simply replace my Dell with an iMac, but I also need a portable computer, running OS-X not iOS, to replace my ageing netbook, running debian. I will be using it for Internet access, light audio editing and streaming with Audacity, QuickTime and VLC (Ogg, FLAC, etc), some light spreadsheet work (I will switch to Numbers), heavy writing (I will switch to Pages), Sykpe, iCal, and Mail, but most importantly: I am a very heavy user of Google Earth and Google Maps. I am currently looking at the entry level MacBook Air 11.6 as this has a footprint similar to my netbook, but is far thinner and lighter. I rarely use my netbook for more than a couple of hours so battery life is not critical.

I have searched the web and here on MacRumors but I cannot find anyone who has installed Google Earth on the entry level MacBook Air 11.6. I would like to know how it handles navigation, elevation, layers, and streetview? Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have found the system requirements for Google Earth (below), but I would like to know how it actually responds in real world use on the entry level MacBook Air.

Google Earth Minimum Requirements:

* Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4.0 or later
* CPU: 1 GHz
* System Memory (RAM): 256MB
* Hard Disk: 400MB free space
* Network Speed: 128 Kbits/sec
* Graphics Card: 3D-capable with 16MB of VRAM
* Screen: 1024x768, "Thousands of Colors"

Google Earth Recommended Specifications:

* Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5.2 or later
* CPU: G4 1.2Ghz
* System Memory (RAM): 512MB
* Hard Disk: 2GB free space
* Network Speed: 768 Kbits/sec
* Graphics Card: 3D-capable with 32MB of VRAM
* Screen: 1280x1024, "Millions of Colors"


I live in a very, very remote area, so I do not have access to a local store. Everything we consume here is flown in, so returns are a pain, hence my grovelling for help on this forum. I have a couple of other questions which I have posted separately on the forum so as not to bog down this post.

Thanks for your time.

 

[canofbeens]

I am currently looking at the entry level MacBook Air 11.6

Update: I am also looking at the 4GB RAM option, does anyone have Google Earth running on either of these configurations ? if so, could you let me know how it handles navigation, elevation, layers, and streetview?

Thanks.

 

[bolsen78]

Update: I am also looking at the 4GB RAM option, does anyone have Google Earth running on either of these configurations ? if so, could you let me know how it handles navigation, elevation, layers, and streetview?

Thanks.

I forgot about google earth I am downloading it right now and then I will check it out. FYI I am on the 11.6 base model.