Here’s the recent geonews in batch mode.

From the open source / open data front:

• Popular nowadays, Considering a Hybrid Proprietary/Open-Source Architecture
• Here’s a followup regarding the Open Letter for LiDAR standards, for which Esri’s Jack Dangermond himself provided feedback
• With the open source GeoMesa that is almost ready for release, Google & GeoServer Support Geospatial Big Data in the Cloud
• Nice QGIS effect, Trajectory animations with fadeout effect
• A GUI can’t hurt, Web-based configuration for MapProxy
• Second edition is available, PostGIS In Action 2nd Fresh off the presses

From the Esri front:

• Updated data, U.S. Esri Demographic data is now available
• Drive your city, CityEngine .0 released
• We never mentioned that product before, Esri Maps for IBM Cognos 6.0.2 Released
• We mentioned the Nepal crisis quite a few times, but not the efforts from Esri yet, there you go! Maps and Imagery of the Nepal Earthquake

From the Google front:

• A kid’s dream, Google Maps in Lego form & Brick Street View
• That’s cool too, Wearality, Bringing Google Earth to VR
• There’s New Street View in Madagascar and Canadian Parks
• Expect this feature widely available soon, Google Maps now allows sending directions from computer to app
• The normal difficulties of crowdsourcing, Google Maps Edits Cause Embarrassment, Android peeing on Apple
• Why not, The Planet Mercury in Google Earth
• It’s back, Place IDs in the Google Geocoding API
• And oh, there was a minor bugfix release - the first update in 2 years!, New Version of Google Earth 7.1.4.1529

Discussed over Slashdot:

• Under the sun, Interactive Map Exposes the World’s Most Murderous Places
• We knew this already, Uber Wants To Buy Nokia’s Mapping Services
• They follow you until they deliver, Amazon’s Delivery Drones Will Be Able To Track Your Location
• Global village, Europe Vows To Get Rid of Geo-Blocking
• Again, in the US, Police Can Obtain Cellphone Location Records Without a Warrant
• The police in your hands, Traffic App Waze To Alert L.A. Drivers of Kidnappings and Hit-and-Runs
• 3D soon everywhere, Intel Showcases RealSense 3D Camera Applications and Technologies In New York
• Everywhere really, Microsoft Integrates Autodesk’s 3D Printing Platform Spark Into Windows 10

In the everything-else category:

• Article on significantly improving smartphone’s GNSS accuracy to centimeters, Accuracy in the Palm of Your Hand (also discussed over Slashdot)
• HoloLens for architecture, engineering and construction, Trimble and Microsoft Hololens to the AEC industry
• It’s third year, first time I hear about it, the World Geospatial Developers Conference, with 6000+ attendees
• In time of crisis, How Satellites Can Monitor California’s Underground Water
• Understanding crisis, What Satellite Data Tells Us About Nepal’s Brutal Quake and don’t forget interferometry, Nepal earthquake deformations
• Satellites everywhere, Nanosatellite and microsatellite market forecast to reach $2 billion by
• New WorldDEM global DEM at high resolution, but it’s not cheap
• Self-driving cars: incremental or sudden change? It may well be incremental according to this interesting Wired article, while the next one is discussed over Slashdot, Self-Driving Cars In California: 4 Out of 48 Have Accidents, None Their Fault
• Location and the Internet of Things, Google’s Physical Web vs Apple’s iBeacon, and it appears Twitter invests in iBeacons
• What can be done with a smartwatch and location, 10 best location-based apps for Apple Watch
• Interesting from the OGC, Linked data versus geospatial semantics: Where do you stand?
• In recent releases (via VS), Geomatica released and FME .1

In the maps category:

• Beautiful and alarming at the same time, NASA visualizes the year of Earth’s CO2 emissions
• Historical maps in the US, It Just Got Easier to See a Cool Historical Maps Collection