In+ersec+ion for Spatial People

Here's the recent geonews in batch mode, covering a way too long time-span.

On the open source / open data front:

• GeoWeb Guru reviews the OpenLayers Cookbook by Antonio Santiago Perez: "The book is formatted as a series of 60 'recipes' that demonstrate how to perform various tasks." And here's another review on the same book.
• Some Province of Quebec open geodata and public WMS layers (in French)
• There was some OSGeo-Incubators announcements, the ZOO-Project, Opticks, OGC TEAM Engine and the Marble Virtual Globe are all part of the OSGeo incubation now
• The Cartaro CMS in now available as beta
• GeoTools 8.2 has been released
• Here's how to create a nice seafloor map using shaded relief and open source software

On the Esri front:

• Several sources pointed to the ArcGIS Online Service Credits Estimator

On the Microsoft front:

• For those interested, Bing Maps SDKs for Windows Store Apps Now Available

Geo-related stories discussed over Slashdot:

• Nokia Keeps Quietly Mapping The World
• The Case That Apple Should Buy Nokia
• 3D input device: Microsoft's Hand-Gesture Sensor Bracelet
• And Microsoft Patents 1826 Choropleth Map Technique
• Image classification crowdsourcing: ForestWatchers Lets Anyone Monitor A Patch of Forest
• LightSquared Wants To Share Weather-Balloon Frequencies for LTE
• An academic Android trojan that take pictures of your home and more, PlaceRaider Builds a Model of Your World With Smartphone Photos
• Can Foursquare Data Predict Where You Live?
• That candy bar that tracks you, Nestle's GPS Tracking Candy Campaign

More on Apple Maps from MacRumors and APB:

• Apple's 3D Maps and Imagery See Incremental Improvements
• Apple Turning to Select Retail Store Employees to Help Improve Maps for iOS 6
• Insiders Detail Steve Jobs' Role in Apple's Mapping Effort
• APB tells us Why is the Press Still Talking About Apple Maps

In the miscellaneous category:

• O'Reilly warns us of drones for warfare
• Yes, Wearable LIDAR Sensors for Mapping (via OR)
• APB informs us of MyDigitalGlobe cloud service to make DigitalGlobe imagery more discoverable with OGC catalog services (CWS): "A unique feature of the service is that alerts can be set to notify a user when a new image is added to the library of a specific area of interest."
• For those in hydrography, look at the U.S. National Hydrography Dataset Plus Version 2

In the maps category:

• It's worth taking a look at the Information is Beautiful Awards Winners, it's not all maps, but still pretty
• Via Mapperz, here's the CEC North American Environmental Atlas which is actually pretty interesting
• A Google Maps of Ancient Rome, via OR
• Here's a map of the The World’s Most Expensive Cities

I've been overly busy lately, but give me some time and you'll get all the pertinent geonews. Here's for the recent Google-related geonews.

From official sources:

• Google proudly announced there has been over one billion downloads of Google Earth, clearly Google Earth and Maps were the symbols of a new era in geospatial technologies 
• Google also announced new countries 'graduating' from Google Map Maker: Afghanistan, Antarctica, Ecuador, Georgia, Guatemala, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, Honduras, Iraq, Norfolk Island, Saint Pierre & Miquelon and Saudi Arabia, and shares a related entry on Google Map Maker efforts in Afghanistan
• Google Maps added a "My Location" default "From" location to directions, removing the need to type your current address location
• Slashdot noted that there's now an 'helicopter view' for driving directions in Google Maps
• Yes, the famous Google pushpin has been redesigned, amongst other changes of look
• Google Earth Outreach is now present in Canada, Google Lat Long also shared a story on Canada's boreal forest, the world's largest intact forest
• Here's a bunch of minor Maps API news
• And another developer-oriented entry is tips on mapping your business

From other sources:

• Some users might be interested in those tips to make Google Earth Flight Simulator easier to use
• There was new imagery made available to Google Earth yesterday and new 3D trees in Portland, Oregon
• Via APB, Google will use INRIX for real-time traffic for 8 european countries