March 2015 Summaries

This blog series explores the creation of an animated D3 map projection using JavaScript and AngularJS, focusing on streaming location coordinates via a virtual rotating globe. The aim is to advance existing animated JavaScript globes by connecting them to the internet, allowing real-time reflection of movements from a broadcaster's globe to multiple subscribers through the broadcast pub/sub messaging design pattern. The tutorial details setting up a D3.js application with an orthographic projection to visualize and transmit coordinates using PubNub, a real-time messaging platform. The first part of the series guides users through building the broadcaster component, while the second part will cover developing the subscriber side to receive and animate the data, leveraging AngularJS and PubNub's Angular library.

Verizon's "State of the Market" report highlights the rapid growth and transformative potential of the Internet of Things (IoT), with over a billion devices already connected and predictions of reaching 5.4 billion by 2020, marking a 28% annual growth rate. The report underscores significant year-over-year growth in Verizon's IoT business, including a 45% increase in revenue and 135% growth in 4G LTE activations, while predicting that business-to-business IoT connections will more than quadruple in the next five years. Key sectors like manufacturing, finance, insurance, and media are seeing increased machine-to-machine operations, with the automotive industry adopting connected car strategies and smart city capabilities becoming essential for future investments. IoT growth is driven by technological, political, and social factors, including the reduced costs of sensors and connectivity, although security concerns remain a challenge in a fully connected world.

Web browser push notifications are messages sent to a user's web browser, such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Opera, from a website or web application, appearing as small pop-up notifications even if the user is not currently on the site. Unlike mobile push notifications, which are delivered through apps using technologies like Firebase Cloud Messaging or APNS, web push notifications rely on a W3C standard implemented by browser manufacturers. The tutorial discussed in the text demonstrates a web application named "Oi," which uses web push notifications to send messages between browsers in under a tenth of a second, featuring real-time presence functionality that indicates which users are available to receive notifications. It utilizes the PubNub JavaScript SDK for Pub/Sub messaging, ensuring that users can send and receive notifications efficiently. To implement web push notifications, developers must first request user permission, and once granted, they can display notifications directly using the Notification API. Web push notifications are commonly used by services like Gmail and online calendars to alert users of new emails or upcoming appointments, respectively.