Earth vs Micro Fi
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Earth
Visualize global climate data from NASA satellites, including temperature, CO2, and sea level. Explore 3D Earth models with interactive controls and color-coded maps to understand environmental conditions.
- Global climate data visualization
- Satellite data from Earth Science
- Surface air temperature maps
- CO2 and CO levels
- Ozone and water vapor data
- Gravity and sea level variations
- Interactive 3D Earth model
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NASA's Earth Now is an application that visualizes recent global climate data from Earth Science satellites, including surface air temperature, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, ozone, and water vapor as well as gravity and sea level variations. Data sets are visually described using "false color" maps. Color-coded legends are provided to indicate relative strength or weakness of an environmental condition. The resulting 3D model of the Earth may be rotated by a single finger stroke, and may also be zoomed in or out by pinching 2 fingers. It was developed by the Earth Science Communications and Visualization Technology Applications and Development Teams at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, with support from NASA Headquarters.
Micro Fi
This application connects to a specialized handheld microscope, allowing users to view magnified images on their mobile devices. It facilitates exploration and discovery of the microscopic world directly from a smartphone or tablet.
- Connects to Wi-Fi enabled microscopes
- View magnified images on mobile
- Explore the microscopic world
- User-friendly interface
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Micro Fi is a viewing APP for use with the Micro Fi Wi-Fi enabled handheld microscope by Celestron
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Earth at every 4 months against Micro Fi's every 44 months. Earth also leads on rating (4.6 vs 4.3) and ratings volume (42 vs 4). Micro Fi's advantage is iOS requirement (8.1 vs 13.0). On price, review sentiment, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Earth holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Earth has 42 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 74% of Earth's written reviews are positive against 75% of Micro Fi's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Earth ships an update every 4 months, Micro Fi every 44 months. The most recent releases landed on November 4, 2026 and November 1, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Earth | Micro Fi |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (42 ratings) — better | 4.3 (4 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 73.7% of reviews | 75.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 42 — better | 4 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months — better | Every 44 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 | 8.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 181 MB | 9 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Jet Propulsion Laboratory | Celestron, LLC |
Customer experience
Earth
Micro Fi
Bugs and requests
Earth
Reported bugs
12 issues- App crashes on startup or during use
- Endless 'Loading model' message
- Crashes on iPhone 4 and older devices
- Pixel doubler requirement on iPad
- No landscape orientation support
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- Doesn't fill iPhone 5 screen properly
- Extremely slow data loading
- Menu navigation issues
- Equator display shows slashes of emptiness
- Zoom sensitivity causes twitchy behavior
- Text readability issues against Earth background
- Geographic data coverage gaps
Requested features
17 requests- Celsius/Kelvin temperature unit options
- Satellite information (height, launch date)
- ISS tracking capability
- Ocean current visualization
- Ice sheet data layers
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- Methane concentration data
- Snapshot/screenshot capability
- Adjustable animation playback speed
- Manual timeline scrolling for animations
- Higher resolution maps for Retina displays
- Landscape orientation support
- iPad version
- Google Earth integration
- More detailed explanations of data
- Selectable date ranges for animations
- Atmospheric CO2 levels (previously removed)
- Surface temperature data (previously removed)
Micro Fi
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Earth
No in-app purchases
Micro Fi
No in-app purchases
