I've seen Steinway grand pianos in homes where no one knows how to play them. Yet there they sit, looking magnificent with their tops proudly open.

Like any luxury item, they can be a status symbol. Globes are like that too. Look in most any well-appointed home or executive office and there's a good chance you'll find one of those expensive-looking globes sitting on a desk, on a richly-appointed library table or one of those really big models standing majestically on the floor. Beautiful globes can literally cost hundreds if not thousands of dollars. I've even seen globes made from inlaid semi-precious stones. However if you don't have a few spare thousands to get one, you can still get something really special for just

$39.95 and in many ways, it's even more breath-taking than any globe you can hold in your hand.

Software MacKiev's 3D Weather Globe & Atlas is perhaps the most beautiful rendering of a globe I've seen to date on a computer. The program is chocked full of features, some of which I'll describe here but if you come away with just one thing from this description, it's that you'll probably just want to sit and stare at it. I first saw this program being displayed at my local Apple store on one of those 30 inch displays. It was as if I were looking out the window of some kind of spacecraft and seeing the planet slowly spin. What I was looking at is actually the screen saver module that comes with the program. When activated, you see part of the Earth slowly rotating, illuminated by the sun. As the sun comes into view, you see those circular halos that come from the light reflecting off of an invisible glass lens that lies between you and outer space. It's amazing.

As you continue to watch the rotation, the sun passes by and the surface moves into an evening darkness that's highlighted by the moon and the tiny lights emanating from the accurately positioned cities below. Plus the angle from where you are viewing continues to shift so that you eventually see the globe from all possible perspectives. It is absolutely gorgeous.

Even on a smaller screen, this is one screen saver you will want to show off to everyone. And if you have an Internet connection, the cloud coverage will be an actual reflection of the current weather conditions, the moon will be in its proper phase and the sun will be over the part of the planet where it's currently daylight. And that's just the screen saver. By the way, even if you see a screen shot of what I am describing or see the pictures on the box cover, they can't do it justice. You have to actually see it running to appreciate how beautiful the screen saver actually looks.

The rest of 3D Weather Globe & Atlas is chocked full of features that include a user-sizeable globe with user-controls that let you adjust the globe's transparency, rotational speed, actual weather conditions and how they are displayed. Accurate cloud animations are detailed enough to show you the eye of a hurricane if one happens to be out there at any given moment, the direction the clouds are moving and all of this continues to be updated throughout the day via orbiting satellite information.

The atlas components let you see any country's boundaries and major cities.

Activate the time zones to see the time in most any location. You can even determine what time the sun will rise and set. You can plot your own routes from one point to another or see some of history's more famous routes such as the one taken by Amelia Earhart or Columbus' voyage.

The NASA maps are of the highest resolution ever made of the entire planet which is one screen pixel corresponding to one actual kilometer on the Earth's surface.

There are many other features to explore on this wonderful program and whether it's for you or your kids, this is one computer program that has something for the entire family. The cost of the program also includes a one year subscription to the weather and positioning service. It's like having your own personal window to the planet right there on your desktop.

Exclusively for the Macintosh.