Google Earth 6 was released Monday giving new meaning to up close and personal. The upgrade adds integrated Street Views into Google Earth along with a new emphasis on trees. More than 50 species of trees have been added to Google Earth’s 3D models of places.

Also with this latest version of Earth, Google has added a new character to the software’s repertoire, Pegman. Similar to the way Google Maps works, when looking at an aerial view of a location, areas with Street Views available are outlined in blue on the map. You can drag Pegman to any blue area and you’ll be immediately taken to a street level view of that location. Better yet, you can “walk” down streets by using the scroll wheel on a mouse or the cursor keys on a keyboard.

While in Street View, you can toggle to 3D view, which gives you a ground level view with 3D graphics buildings and now, 3D trees, too. “In Google Earth, while we and our users have been busy populating the globe with many thousands of 3D building models, trees have been rather hard to come by,” Google Product Manager Peter Birch explained today in the company’s Lat Long Blog. “All that is changing with Google Earth 6, which includes beautifully detailed, 3D models for dozens of species of trees, from the Japanese Maple to the East African Cordia to my personal favorite, the cacao tree.”

With 3D trees you can see tree species in places like parks, neighborhoods and forests. Some 80 million trees have been “planted” so far by Google Earth in places like San Francisco, Tokyo, Athens and Chicago, as well as the Surui Forest in South America and Kahigaini, Kenya.

Google has also added a time machine of sorts to the new version of Earth. If you view an area where historical imagery of it is available, the date of the oldest imagery will appear in the status bar at the bottom of the screen. Click on that date and you’ll be transported back in time to see imagery about that place at that time.

Whether you’re using the desktop version of Google Earth or its browser plug-in, the new features add a personal dimension to viewing places both familiar and far away that’s the next best thing to being there.

According to the Google Earth Website, version 6 requires Mac OS X 10.5 or later.

“I really believe in finding new ways to distribute my music,” pop legend Prince told the Daily Mirror in an exclusive interview today.

Puzzling, then, that the musical icon also said he deplores online and other digital means of music distribution.

“The Internet’s completely over,” he said. “I don’t see why I should give my new music to iTunes or anyone else. They won’t pay me an advance for it, and then they get angry when they can’t get it.”

Prince’s famous and longstanding battle against the web gained steam in 2007, when Prince declared his intention to file lawsuits against YouTube, eBay and The Pirate Bay for users’ appropriation of his music. He’s banned such sites from using it, and he’s also refused to work with legal, legitimate outlets such as eMusic and iTunes.

And don’t try to find his official site; it’s been shut down, as well.

“The Internet’s like MTV,” the star said to The Mirror’s correspondent. “At one time, MTV was hip, and suddenly it became outdated.”

“Suddenly” – a.k.a. around the time the Internet started taking off, perhaps?

Not only is Prince down on the web; he also is decidedly not a fan of consumer electronics. “All these computers and digital gadgets are no good. They just fill your head with numbers and that can’t be good for you.”

Prince’s new album, 20TEN, will be released as a CD to Mirror readers and the readers of various other print publications in Europe. It might be distributed via Warner Bros. in the U.S. This will be the artist’s 27th release.

Clearly, we at Mashable take a radically different view, both about the Internet and about the utility and integrity of web-based music distribution models. We’re of the opinion that musicians need more (and better) online tools, not fewer.

Keeping in mind Prince’s amazing contributions to music’s past, we’re not sure he’s in touch with its present or accurately forecasting its future. So-called experts have been predicting the death of the Internet at least since 1995, and we’ve yet to see anything come of these proclamations of doom.

What do you think? Is Prince missing out on something by withdrawing himself from the web? Or could he be correct; is the Internet just a fad, after all?

[img credit: nostri-imago]

Personal genomics startup 23andMe has just gone through a round of layoffs, we’ve confirmed. The company declined to comment on how many people were laid off, but offered this statement:

We have reduced our staffing levels in a restructuring of our workforce. This was a very difficult decision, but one that we felt was necessary to achieve 23andMe’s long-term business development goals and maintain our strength in the industry.

These cuts, which are a reflection of the current economic environment all companies are facing, will allow us to continue to invest in the growth of our Personal Genome Service and research endeavors.

23andMe was founded by Linda Avey and Anne Wojcicki back in 2006. Investors include biotech powerhouse Genentech, as well as New Enterprise Associates. The company also has close ties to Google — Sergey Brin (who is Wojciki’s husband) has loaned 23andMe $10 million, and Google also has a stake in the company.

Avey left the company in early September to start a new foundation dedicated to Alzheimer’s research.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll said it again: there’s little doubt in my mind that personal genomics will be a booming industry in the relatively near future, though it may be five years or a decade before this testing really catches on. The concept is still quite foreign to most people, and while there can be some benefits to this kind of testing (such as learning your risk factor for certain diseases), the science is still very much in its infancy.