My boys at Quirky finally got the big redesign done on their site. Very nice, go check it out and buy some socially developed products!

Full Disclosure (Hat tip to the FTC): I’m a minority shareholder and advisor to Quirky.

I’m off first thing tomorrow morning for a few days in London before I head on to Davos. This year is the 40th year the World Economic Forum has been convening world leaders and interesting people under one very snowy Swiss roof. It will be my third time to the event, and so far the past two have been drastically different from one another. They continue to be inspiring and stimulating though, and have provided both a good reception for my speaking engagements in the past (I’m speaking again this year), and fertile ground to explore new areas of interest I have.

As some of you know, last year I was nominated into a special group within the Forum called the Forum of Young Global Leaders. It has been an absolutely amazing experience (with meetings so far in Jordan, China and Dubai) and has given me an incredible opportunity to begin meeting other young worldly thinkers trying to make a difference in the world.

One such project we have been working on together just launched today, and I’m pleased to be able to share it with all of you. It’s called Redesign Our World. Essentially, it’s a place to show off many of the incredible initiatives YGL’s have been dreaming up and working on, and solicit new ideas from people around the globe.

With the help of some friends, we managed to get a site up in time for Davos so the internal Davos community and world at large could see, comment and engage with what we’re working on. I hope you’ll take a look and leave a comment or endorsement if you see something you like.

As usual I’ll do my best to blog throughout my travels– but following me on Twitter is usually a better way to see what I’m up to, hearing, seeing and thinking.

Thanks for reading…

Everyone needs a little vacation from their inbox and the day to day, right? I’ll be tweeting every now and then– if I have anything remotely interesting to share from the beach. Be back to you soon!

It’s been a long time. Way too long. Want to tell me about yourself? What you think about the site? What I should change?

You know it’s just me running the place now– so I want to hear from you.

Fill out the 2010 survey.

Thanks!

I’ve been enjoying being off the grid in Asia.  Sorry for the lack of updates, but I promise some pictures and reviews soon.  I’m having a great (and interesting) time!

Friends, family, readers, generous souls:

We did it! We’ve reached my goal. A goal I set on my 25th birthday.

Together we raised $5,000. $5,000 that builds a well and provides clean drinking water for a community of 500+ people.

Dozens of you stepped up and donated to make this possible (more than 100 in total). Names I recognize, familiar names I’d seen around, and names I’ve never seen before.

You all rock.

Each and every one of you has helped me reach my goal and were an integral part of something bigger, something special, something with meaning beyond words.

My wish has been granted. Thank you for your support.

With gratitude,

Josh

P.S. That was easy, right? Got a birthday coming up? How about you build one as well?

Full story of my DB9 adventure coming soon…

Ladies and gentlemen: We haven’t reached my goal yet, but we’re getting closer. And I’m not going to stop talking about it until we do. With more than 100,000+ readers, I’m convinced we can do a lot of good together. $1.00 from each and we’d have 20 wells by now. Anything helps, really.

To those of you who have supported so far, thank you. You are all awesome. 

Did you donate and want a link to your site, company or project here? Forward me your Paypal receipt to feedback[at]joshspear.com and I’ll give you a proper shout out and full link here.

Today is my birthday, 25 years to be exact. While I really do want to let it pass quietly (I feel old), I also want to do some good. Want to send me a gift? Figured you might. How about you just donate to Charity Water instead. I’m giving up my birthday, and it’s all I want from you: A $25 donation means only 200 of you (and there are thousands of you out there) need to pony up the cash so we can team up and build a well.

Only $5,000 builds a well that provides clean drinking water for 250+ people for more than 20 years.

Now that’s worth celebrating. Come on, lets go.

Update! Donate directly on the charity water site here!

After more than a year together, our very own Jonathan Stern is, well, no longer our very own Jonathan Stern. Cat’s out of the bag, he has moved on to a dead-sexy job as Senior Editor for the Food Network Magazine– and we’re very happy for him. It’s a great place for him to explore his fanatical obession with all things edible, and a good opportunity for us to sit back and reflect on how far this blog has come. Thanks for all your support and hard work Jonathan, and good luck!

So, naturally now I’m left a bit short-handed day to day. What are we going to do? Well, for now, I’m back to running the show. Watch this space, things are changing, uh oh.

New York, San Francisco, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Tianjin, Shanghai, London, Geneva, New York.

My travel schedule for the next 3 weeks takes me all the way around the globe. I’ll be in meetings, taking a breather at a hot spring resort outside Tokyo, scouring the streets of Hong Kong, participating in the World Economic Forum in Tianjin, tasting food in Shanghai, speaking at a conference in Geneva, and blogging the whole way (or most of it).

As always, if you’re in any of those cities and have a tip for the inside track or something I must see, send it our way!

You can read the likely spotty, on and off but nitty-gritty details of my trip as they unfold on a new blog I’m testing out, called Flying Standby. Play nice, it’s in alpha. Of course normal shop, product, design, art, or trend findings or related posts will still happen here at the flagship. Off I gooooo!

It’s easier to dress all of your male friends in Saint Augustine Academy when you have the entire collection in front of you– which is exactly what I would be doing if I were in Sydney, where the accelerating line of edgy men’s apparel has opened it’s first store.

Located in Surry Hill’s, SAA’s new space takes a minimalistic approach to displaying their line of bravely designed and beautifully tailored pieces, staying true to designers Adrian and Alvin’s musically-inclined vision. The mellow palate of this season’s collection, Happy Endings, looks quite at home against the black, white and metal of the flagship – as would I, I imagine, as I slather my man friends in the kind of gear normally reserved for more professional panty-droppers (oopsie, did I say that out loud?).

On my end, it has been exciting to watch this ballsy AU label grow as it has been spotting their work on an increasing number of serious-as-shit rockers, but a flagship store– well, that’s a whole new level of awesomeness. Congrats, boys!

Well, all of the mystery surrounding the new iPhone we’ve been shrouded in for the past couple months can finally be put to rest. Mr. Jobs just revealed the particulars at today’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference in San Francisco. Jason Chen and crew at Gizmodo did one hell of a job live blogging the event, and I found myself hitting ‘command-R’ just about every 10 seconds anxiously awaiting new nuggets of info. On July 11th, we’ll get (black or white) iPhones with a fast 3G network, the availability of tons and tons of 3rd party apps, impressive battery life, GPS functionality, and it’s going to be sold in 70 countries for the drastically reduced prices of $199 for the 8GB version and $299 for the 16 Gigabyte-er. Doesn’t look like they squeezed copy/paste in there, but we always need something to look forward to, right?

Photos and other informational goodies courtesy of Gizmodo.

Related: Why I’m Taking My iPhone Back

When I started this blog, I never imagined in only a few short years I would be able to surround myself with an incredible, talented, and diverse team. Today, I’m extremely proud to introduce a new Editor to the site, Jonathan Stern.

So, who is he? Jonathan is a native Bostonian, but around the age of five his parents thought it would be funny to transplant him to Florida, where he’d spend his formative years rooting for the Red Sox, drinking Miller High Life, and dreaming of that day he’d get back to the Northeast and write for Rolling Stone. Only one of those things happened, and for the past six years he’s written for no less than a dozen high-profile publications including: the Phoenix, Stuff, Penthouse, People.com, House and Garden, Golf for Women, Lucky, and ACCESS (DirecTV’s subscriber magazine). As the new Editorial Director of JoshSpear.com, he thinks that he can settle down and become a one blog kinda guy. We’re pumped to have him on board. Welcome Jonathan!

I've had the pleasure of editing this site for the past year. In that time I've seen our team expand, watched others leave (while wishing they weren't) and, most importantly, tried to bring fresh, exciting and high quality content here to the best of my ability. I've enjoyed it all thoroughly but as of Monday, I'll no longer be editing this site, and will hand the reins over to the very capable Jonathan Stern (more on him soon), who I've had the privilege of working with the past few months. I'm sure he'll continue in the same vein as I have, as well as adding his own flavor along the way.

This change in roles will hopefully afford me the time to contribute here more frequently. For the next few months, I'll be traveling — first to California for the majority of May, then back to Australia to spend some much overdue quality time with my family and friends. I couldn't be more excited about this and I hope to share some of my finds and experiences with you. (If the more mundane details of such interest you, you can find me at Tumblr or on Twitter.) I've loved hearing from everyone– what you think of the site, always appreciated your tips, submissions and feedback when you thought something was off. I hope you'll continue this dialogue with the new guard here. In my opinion, you couldn't be in safer hands than Josh, Jonathan and the rest of the editorial team.

Thanks for reading. You guys have been great.

–Heather