The advent of the Internet has more or less made television the antiquated way of keeping up with the informational Joneses. Monitoring the World Wide Web for what’s going on is as easy as HTTP. Unfortunately, the sites you check aren’t always on the ball or up to date. The folks behind OneRiot have their own way of keeping you up to speed on what everybody’s talking about. The social search site from the minds behind me.dium relies on feedback from users, rather than computers, to decide what’s relevant to readers. Content popularity is not displayed based on the whole of Internet searches, but the activity of the site’s community. OneRiot prioritizes search results in order from emerging, surging or raging, depending on how many members of their community are currently visiting a site — like instant Nielsen ratings for your own demographic. So instead of finding out that countless amount of people all over the world are searching for nude photos of the Philly Phanatic, or that tons of people you don’t know are watching Two and A Half Men, you might get caught up on something that is actually relevant to your interests. How novel!

We all love having Facebook and Twitter to talk to our friends no matter where you are. But what about when you’re out and want to see where your friends are? Enter Brightkite. It isn’t exactly a “new” idea, since the iPhone, and well before it, there have been failed attempts at creating a location based social network. Well Brightkite might have it down — a clean interface, and easy friend and privacy settings. You can integrate it with Twitter and Facebook, review places (I used it last night to find a place to eat), meet people nearby or just find out about an area (currently house hunting with it). As we go around the globe focused on what the hippest of the locals are doing, this might be our new Rosetta Stone. Currently it’s private invite only (send them an email see what they can do), but since the release of their iPhone app BrightKite has gone from just a fun tool, to a really really useful one. The platform works with almost any mobile phone and you can update from the website.

UPDATE: The nice people at Brightkite have given us a link to sign up here.

Just about everything seems ripe for a makeover these days. There are reality shows that’ll revamp anything from your wardrobe to your aspirations. And even though Pimp My Ride has been unnecessarily adding XBoxes and juicers into Geo Metro’s for quite some time now, we’ve never seen them transform an environmentally exceptionable vehicle into one into one that induces the envy of the insecure (if you know what we mean). No one’s thought to make your favorite Smart Car into your favorite fast one … until now. We stumbled upon these Smart Cars with sportscar shells that turn your eco-friendly auto into something that resembles a race-ready roadster in the form of a Ferrari, Porsche or Lamborghini. Unfortunately, as far as we can tell, you won’t be turning your hybrid into a hot ride anytime soon, as these babies were cleverly photoshopped to raise our expectations and then crush them.

A few months ago a film crew, photographer, assistants of all types and literally dozens of people with color meters, cameras and lights descended on my NYC office and later at my home to shoot a spot and interview for the Yahoo! Start Wearing Purple campaign. A unique experience to say the least, and one of the most exhausting days of my life. Lights, camera, action. Not my world, but interesting to be a part of for a day.

The interview and photos turned out pretty well I think– but it’s always weird seeing yourself on screen and wondering what was going through your head, and how they chopped and edited you together in that way. For people that don’t know me very well, it might offer some better insight into where I work and what I do all day.

The campaign is what they refer to as a “call-to-action’ by Yahoo! for people to live life as an individual, and with an exclamation point. The campaign emphasizes (despite any economic situation) their roots through the color and spirit of purple — it means individuality, imagination and innovation.

In the Pioneers of Purple section, I’m humbled to be featured alongside big wave rider (and absolute bad ass) Jeff Clark, Kiva founder Jessica Flannery, music man Nic Harcourt, hit maker Larry Jackson, and site staple Simone Legno of Tokidoki.

The program features four main components. Technology (a set of pretty amazing bikes that take photos every 45 seconds around the world and stream them direct to Flickr), personalities (the pioneers of purple), some products, and the improvisation work done by Charlie Todd of Improv everywhere. There’s a ton of content over there so I encourage you to check it out– but be nice.

In spite of all of the warnings about global warming, there are still those that continue to drive the gas guzzling behemoth that is the Hummer. The tank-sized vehicle is often purchased to compensate for shortcomings both mental and physical or just as a garish show of riches. In order to offset this ostentatious display of wealth and environmental disregard Ji Lee, Andrew Wilcox and Nelly Ma have come up with a project entitled Tag A Dummer. The project asks people to download and print out the letter “D” as provided and tag any Hummer they see by gluing it on and rebranding their vehicle a “Dummer” to alert the driver to the error of their ways. While it probably won’t convince people whose idea of a good time is cruising down the street in an urban assault vehicle to become environmentally conscious, it might at least go a short way in knocking them down a peg. Visitors to the site can also read up on the environmental impact of the vehicle as well as see pictures of Dummers that have been tagged.

Clever as ever, the Japanese have combined an animal shelter with a teahouse to create the Tokyo phenomenon known as “cat cafes.” To understand why the Japanese would pay ($8-$12 an hour) to play with someone else’s cats, you have to consider their culture. Tokyo is one of the most overworked cities in the world, with its denizens facing long commutes and hours of unpaid overtime. Residents lack the time and space to devote to pets of their own, but need the stress-relieving benefits of a feline companion. Successful cafes like Neko no Mise have a dozen cats on staff, play relaxing music and provide comics for their patrons. Sounds pretty great to me. Any benefactor interested in starting up a cat cafe stateside…Meow, Music and Manga?

Grab your passports, put your seats and tray tables in their upright and locked position, and get ready for PSFK’s Conference in Asia. Piers and crew are headed to tax-haven and very international city of Singapore to help spread the gospel of good design, marketing, advertising, communication and so forth.

The conference agenda “Creativity for Change, Ideas To Make Things Better” looks to be one of the tastiest I’ve seen yet, speakers include:

My pal Jeff Staple who will talk about how his great ‘accidental career path’ landed him at the help of an international company, Piers (the PF in PSFK) talks about “making things better” and a handful of others from places like W+K, NASA, Mindshare, Panasonic and MTV will be taking the stage (full list here). Also, Mark Dytha of Pecha Kucha fame will speak– that should be interesting. Tickets are on sale now, with the even happening on Friday, October 10 is the day. Say hi to everyone for me, I’m sorry I’ll miss it.

Everything’s going green these days, and the toy world is no exception. Perhaps appealing to our guilt at the amount of plastic we consume as toy fanatics, a growing crop of collectibles attempts to balance the extraneous and the ecological. Just because you live in the city doesn’t mean you can’t grow a garden. In America, artists are making potheads out of Kidrobot’s Munny figures. Japan exports Crack-a-heads egg-shaped herb gardens, the mecha-meets-Chia Igrobot and Nyokki: a set of ceramic plant “pets” perfect for people who are allergic to animals (but not grass). Spain went green way back in 2004 with Martí Guixé’s Plant-Me-Pet, which won him a DesignPlus award. Those figures are currently making a resurgence with toy collectors; if you can bear to bury them, they’ll reward you with pumpkins, melons and tomatoes. For more information on the growing trend of eco-toys, check out Herb-n Art Toys at ToyCyte.

We all drink bottled water. We don’t want to, we know that it’s bad for the environment, we understand that Poland Springs is neither from Poland nor from springs — but when it’s hot out and we’re running to the train we can’t help ourselves. Sorry. Our liberal guilt is consuming us, and yet we realize that our long national bottled water nightmare isn’t going to be rectified overnight. So, wouldn’t it be better if you could at least buy a water with a smaller carbon footprint? Some may say it’s ludicrous to buy NYC tap water, but you plunk down a dollar at the convenience store when you could use a public water fountain or just cup your hands under the sink. Tapd NY makes no secret they put reverse osmosis treated tap water into a bottle and sell it. But they try to encourage the public to refill and reuse, meeting the bottle-buyers and eco-warriors half way. Hell, even the Hydrators would rather top off your bottle than see you buy another one.

What do you think?

The favorite emerging food trend of the summer is one you should expect to see only more of. Frozen Tart Yogurt — if you haven’t seen it or tried it in your town, it’s on its way. You’ve probably heard of the L.A. based Pinkberry, or the Korean sensation Red Mango that is making waves in the USA, but an emerging favorite with the superior designed space and product is Tartini. Everything about Tartini has been done with a specific purpose and the result is an astounding modern, approachable and high quality product.

Read after the jump for more about Tartini design.
READ MORE…

Recently launched Causecast “brings together nonprofits, community leaders, activists, celebrities and brands, with the goal of making a positive impact on the world.” Working with hand-selected charities and non-profits, Causecast is giving some much-deserved internet exposure to organizations who may be struggling in that arena. Users of the site can upload content, connect with like-minded individuals and stay up-to-date on a variety of causes.

Educating yourself is the first step in making a difference, and it seems like this will be a great educational resource and conduit for good. Design props to Bobby Solomon from Kitsune Noir as well, who headed up the prettiness of it all. Looking forward to seeing the progress to be made!

These days, you can hardly round a city block without coming across wheat-pasted, stenciled and sticker-bombed walls. With artists like Shepard Fairey and Banksy getting plenty of attention for their street art, there is an “artist” you’ve likely encountered but for whom fame remains elusive…until now. Brooklyn designer Grotesk is calling out the original kings of NY sticker art as the folks behind the “stuck gate” stickers. The yellow and black rectangular notices are adhered to metal gates and offer help to shopkeepers with malfunctioning gates. They are a part of the New York City landscape, and Grotesk collected them over several years of walking around the five buroughs. Empire Gates and crew will finally achieve a small dose of glory when on September 15th, 5BORO Skateboards will release this tribute skateboard and t-shirt.

That sexy, sleek laptop is no doubt indicative of your stylish swagger, you’re only so chic as the accessories you keep. So what are you doing toting around your computer in tired old carrying case? Your accessories are an extension of yourself and what are you if not ever so spiffy. It’s time you corrected your slight oversight and supplied yourself with a bag as sharp as you are. We suggest checking out some goods from Knomo. The British brand’s perfectly precious and practical computer bags have just become available in the United States and are ready to take fashion forward techies by storm.

In a whirlwind of talent and pure luck, musician Daniel Ingala and his new band Plushgun, have been riding the wave of success since posting the single “Just Impolite” on MySpace. A few hundred thousand plays later, Ingala posted the song on Ourstage.com, a venue for fans to discover new music. It quickly hit the #1 spot on the Alternative Rock channel in January 2008. A strangely funny and sometimes awkward video has since been produced, featuring Rainn Wilson (The Office) and director Tyler Shields wrestling. Plushgun’s music is full of synths with a middle to high BPM’s; very danceable and easy to dive into. It requires little ramp up and is super casual if you are looking for just something to listen to while getting ready to go out. If you are looking for a tool to help you reflect, Plushgun’s music can help with that too, providing (surprisingly) deep lyrics and themes. Look for the album to drop January 2009. In the meantime, you can get a taste for their music via the 4 song EP, released a few weeks ago.

Aardman Animations‘ Wallace and Gromit have been recruited as spokesmodels for a series of advertisements for luxury lifestyle store Harvey Nichols. Some of the designer clothes featured in the posters and magazine ads include an Alexander McQueen suit, a Dolce & Gabbana shirt, a Giorgio Armani tie, a Paul Smith scarf and Ray-Ban wayfarers. Nick Park, the Oscar-winning duo’s creator, quipped that “Wallace isn’t exactly known for his street-wise fashion sense; he usually shops at Tank-Top Man.” Harvey Nichols chose the pair as the faces of a new store they are opening in Bristol, where Wallace and Gromit were created.

This, of course, isn’t the first time that cartoon characters and toys have decked out in fashion store finery. Back in 2005, Kidrobot produced a set of Huck Gee’s Skullhead figures exclusively for Barneys. The 12-inch designer toys were outfitted in a collection of threads by Marc Jacobs, Jil Sander, Dries Van Noten, Rick Owens Lab and Duckie Brown. Someone send a memo to Tyra Banks for a new reality show starring toys…