Batch Geonews: Centimeters GNSS Accuracy from Smartphones, Google Maps + StreetView in Legos, Google Earth in VR, and much more

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

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