Batch Geonews: 3D Printing Pen, OGC’s GeoPackage Standard, ArcGIS Explorer 2500, Major Bing Maps Updates, and much much more

Here's the geonews in batch mode, unusually covering 4 weeks, thus a much longer issue.

On the open source / data front:

  • With the GeoPackage standard in the oven and its opportunity to replace the aging shapefile format, read this very pertinent summary named Takeaways from OpenGeo’s Comments on OGC and the Proposed GeoPackage Specification
  • An interesting entry on TileMill for Raster Analysis
  • In the same vein, expanding TileMill's Building Symbolizer to Visualize Complex 3D Structures
  • EasySDI V3 is now available
  • The open source virtual globe Marble 1.5 is now available for MacOS X

On the Esri front:

  • A book review of "Python Scripting for ArcGIS" by Paul A. Zandbergen
  • A new version, and here's what’s new in ArcGIS Explorer Desktop 2500
  • The ArcGIS Query Analysis Add-In is available for download
  • Here's the ArcGIS Online World Topographic Map February updates and here's the previous update
  • ArcGIS applied to tennis, Using spatial analytics to study spatio-temporal patterns in sport
  • APB shares a Esri Federal GIS Conference News Roundup

On the Google front:

  • Google announced that Public Alerts for Google Search, Google Now and Google Maps available in Japan
  • The official entry on Expanding Street View in Europe
  • The GEB again mentions Tracking Satellites in Google Earth, this time linking to the new SightSpaceStation website

On the Microsoft front:

  • A new Bing Maps Tech Preview at TED Conference: "a new twist: the ability to mine Flickr for geotagged photos and overlay onto Bing Maps streetside imagery for a perfect visual lock"
  • Bing Maps got a major overhaul, 46.7 TB of new imagery and a Silverlight version of Bing Maps… I though Silverlight was abandoned?
  • Here's the entry on the New Top of the World and High Resolution Satellite Imagery
  • An entry on Bing Maps REST Service Tips & Tricks
  • And New to REST Services: Elevations API and 3D Elevation Models with Bing Maps WPF
  • And training for apps builders, Bing Maps for Windows Store Apps Training Kit

Geospatial-related discussions over Slashdot:

  • Startup Uses Radiation Fear To Map Cellphone Coverage
  • Fox News: US Solar Energy Investment Less Than Germany Because US Has Less Sun, comparing maps, it's simply far from the truth
  • The US Redrawn As 50 Equally Populated States
  • Drones Still Face Major Hurdles In US Airspace and AirBurr UAV Navigates By Crashing Into Things
  • Canon Demos New Head-Mounted Augmented-Reality Display
  • Texas Bills Would Bar Warrantless Snooping On Phone Location

In the everything else category:

  • A lot of sources mentioned 3Doodler: The World's First 3D Printing Pen, while not entirely geospatial-related, 3D printing is mainstream now
  • APB shares an entry on a Free e-Book on Online GIS which compares ArcGIS Online, CartoDB, CloudGIS, GeoCommons, MangoMap and MapBox
  • Trying to amend myself for not having shared this before, here's How Interactivity Works with UTFGrid for web maps, along with a visual demo, and an example using OpenLayers
  • APB has an entry named U.S. House Representatives Introduce Online Communications and Geolocation Protection Act
  • Everything is a geospatial sensor, Rain tracked with mobile network
  • A milestone release, MapBox iOS SDK Goes 1.0.0 + New Features
  • MapQuest Introduced Free Travel Blogs to help people share their travel adventures
  • Mapperz mentions that the USPS Mapping Tool allows you to pick your own delivery routes
  • APB links to an article named How Google And Bing Maps Control What You Can See

In the maps category:

  • We presented a world map of undersea internet connections, here's the interactive Submarine Cable Map
  • Scary, maps of the U.S. Geography of Sin, and here's the U.S. Geography of Happiness

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