Here’s the recent geonews in batch mode.

On the open source / open data front:

• This is a must see, full instructions to Creating 3D terrains with Cesium
• Via O’Reilly, I became aware of Google’s open Material Design Icons on GitHub that can certainly be used for maps, reminiscent of the Maki and WorldWeatherSymbols amongst a few
• New lab, University of Colorado Denver’s FOSS4G Lab
• Slim OpenLayers, Creating a custom build of OpenLayers 3 (Revisited)
• Short analysis of the features for creating printable maps, QGIS Compared: Cartography
• In the same series, QGIS Compared: Visualization
• Bug fixes and some new features, GeoServer 2.5.3 released
• Same for GeoTools, GeoTools 11.3 released and GeoTools 12.0 Released
• Such guides are often useful if it applies to you, A Quick Guide to Getting Started with PyQGIS on Windows
• Open data in the Netherlands, Unlocking the amazing OpenTopo.nl Maps
• OpenStreetMap is Making Ayacucho the best map in Latin America

On the Esri front:

• Esri and open data, All Your Open Data Questions — Answered

On the Google front:

• Halloween day in Street View! Explore the haunted corners of the world… if you dare
• New version of Google Earth for Android, Explore the world through Google Earth for Android with fast, accurate maps and here’s a Review of Google Earth for Android Version 8
• Wired offers an article named Swim Through the Oceans at Your Desk With Google’s 360-Degree Seaview
• And in the sand too, Roam the Arabian desert with Street View
• Connecting different sources, No map is an island: Introducing a connected JavaScript Maps API experience
• With big data everywhere, Mixing maps and WebGL to visualize huge geo datasets
• If we must, for geo-geeks – new Google’s Earth View extension for Chrome

Discussed over Slashdot:

• More GNSS options, India Successfully Launches Region-Specific Navigation Satellite
• Open source and UAVs, Linux Foundation Launches Open Source Dronecode Project
• Since there will be plenty of driverless cars soon, Michigan Builds Driverless Town For Testing Autonomous Cars
• A bit more on the topic, What Will It Take To Make Automated Vehicles Legal In the US?
• Last one on autonomous cars, SMART Begins Live Public Robocar Tests In Singapore
• Augmented reality becoming a buzzword once again, Google Leads $542m Funding Round For Augmented Reality Wearables Company
• We already know that privacy is dead, How Whisper Tracks Users Who Don’t Share Their Location
• There’s always unhappy people, PETA Is Not Happy That Google Used a Camel To Get a Desert “StreetView”
• Drones salvation, Drones Could 3D-Map Scores of Hectares of Land In Just a Few Hours
• By mapping phones, Taking the Census, With Cellphones

In the everything else category:

• We love stats right? The US Mobile App Report – Google Maps App 64.5M Users, Apple Maps 42M
• Apple’s CarPlay maps? Video Walkthrough of Apple CarPlay on Pioneer Receiver Shows Siri, Phone, Maps, and More
• Feel like playing? GPS Tycoon – new addictive location-based game for Android
• We pay you and we know where you are, Government of India Launches Biometric Initiative to Track Public Servants
• If you’re into Oracle, Oracle Database Cloud Service supports Spatial
• An upcoming event, Geography, on “multi-year strategic dialog on the vital trends that will reshape our nation and our planet.”
• On Wired, an article on the tens of remote sensing satellites sent to orbit Huge Flock of Minisatellites Aims to Photograph the Entire Earth Every Day
• Nice GIS crowdsourced effort Crowdsourcing and Satellites Give Migrating Birds 10K Acres of New Wetlands
• Fun, using remote sensing, a space detective agency
• More learning, Introduction to Satellite Navigation & GPS on Coursera

In the maps category:

• Not an easy place, Mapping Gaza before and after a crisis
• The history and status of Dubai’s The World islands under construction
• From Wired, The Greatest Maps in History, Collected in One Fantastic Book
• From the same source, Super-Detailed Interactive 3-D Seafloor Map
• An interesting discussion on the weirdness of the Belgium - Germany border
• An update from GeoCurrrents, My Error on Ukraine’s Political Divisions
• Passion, Regular Guy From Boston Decides to Map the City’s Entire History