Having a Blackberry for work, I can believe this number. Admittingly, I have the older model Curve, but the UI found on the Curve is consistent with most other models offered by Blackberry. Yes, Blackberry users are some of the most loyal in the world. They are generally business users, who enjoy the mail and business-centric apps and whose companies enjoy utilizing Blackberry Enterprise. Of course, you can also call these same users, on many occasions, complacent. I believe most consumers consider loyalty when switching products or companies, especially with more luxury items. However, I have seen numerous friends ditch the Blackberry to move to the iPhone or Android phone simply because it was more user-friendly, user-centric. From the Ars Technica article: “Perhaps the trend can be explained by Crowd Science’s findings that many are using their smartphones for both personal and business use.” I’m sure this is very true, but maybe something should be said about usability winning over loyalty.

Though I may be white-collar at this point, I come from a very proud and true blue collar family.   My Dad is a truck driver, just like his dad was.  He has been behind a big rig for over thirty years.  It’s what he does and what he knows.    The trucking industry is referred to as the “backbone” of our domestic transportation and state-to-state commerce.  Of course, usually when this is said aloud, it’s drunk and with a southern accent.  But truthfully, it is the backbone of our transportation of goods, and many feel that the collapse of the trucking industry would almost certain spell collapse of our economy.

NASA has been developing reduced drag semi-trucks in wind tunnels for a while now, and believes it the result will be $10 billion, or 3.4 billion gallons of diesel fuel a year.  The findings are based on 15 years of research.

Although this has been tested on trucks built specifically for aerodynamics, safety requirements and considerations will be added after further testing.   This seems be a great leap in very practical innovation, one that will be both economical and ecological.