MTV’s Emmy-Award winning series “Made” has chronicled the struggles of a generation of young people on their paths to personal fulfillment. Now, a new online community from MTV, WannaBeMade.com, allows viewers to launch their own personal development journeys with the help of others. The most emotional and rewarding stories will be incorporated into the current season of “Made.”

By simply visiting WannaBeMade.com, viewers who chose to “wanna be made” can quickly and easily find coaches to help them in a potentially endless amount of areas – from cheerleading to acting, break dancing to becoming a prom queen. A viewer, for instance, who wants to be made into a surfer can find surfing aficionados who can recommend all the right boards, offer tips on techniques, and share insight about the best surfing spots for beginners, experts and everyone in-between. Every journey will be chronicled on the viewer’s profile page including diary entries and a personal progress rating.

LeapFrog Enterprises, Inc., developer of technology-based learning products, announced its sponsorship of the new Learning to Read center on Education.com as part of LeapFrog’s ongoing commitment to providing parents the best learn-to-read tools for their children. This new reading resource will provide easily accessible, high-quality educational and developmental reference and editorial content that address the critical and often challenging topic of learning to read.

“Every parent has questions concerning their children’s education but is unsure where to find answers. Those who turn to the Web find that educational resources are fragmented and inconsistent,” said Ron Fortune, CEO of Education.com. “The ultimate goal of Education.com is to empower parents to help their children. Education is not strictly limited to academic instruction, so whether it’s helping parents choose a school or helping keep kids happy, healthy and motivated, our hope is to provide a resource that minimizes the time spent searching for answers and allows for more time to focus on a child’s education.”

InfoSpace, developer of proprietary metasearch technologies, announced a partnership with blinkx, a video search engine, to offer video search capabilities for InfoSpace’s family of metasearch brands including Dogpile.com, the search engine which returns top results from Google, Yahoo!, Windows Live and Ask.com to provide users with the most relevant and useful information. As consumer demand for online video content continues to grow, the partnership allows InfoSpace to offer users the same breadth and relevancy of video search results as it does with text-based Web search results.

“Video search has become increasingly popular among today’s Web searchers and this addition allows us to offer Dogpile users a more visual and interactive search experience,” said Brian McManus, executive vice president of the online business unit at InfoSpace. “blinkx is a leader in the video search space and we chose them to power our offering because of their extensive video content library and advanced video search technology. blinkx also provides results from a variety of video aggregators such as Brightcove, which makes this partnership a great fit for Dogpile, as the leading metasearch site in the U.S.”

EMI Music announced that it has reached an agreement with SNOCAP which enables U.S. fans to purchase DRM-free, higher-quality MP3s by EMI artists through artist websites, social networking pages and fan blogs. EMI will have the ability to place SNOCAP MyStores on the web pages of hundreds of its artist sites, making EMI the first major record company to partner with SNOCAP to sell its music in a DRM-free, higher-quality format. The SNOCAP MyStore is an easy-to-use Web-based interface and digital storefront.

Downloads will be DRM-free MP3s, encoded at 320 kilobits per second, more than twice the audio quality of standard files. Artists whose tracks will be available via SNOCAP MyStores at launch include 30 Seconds to Mars, The Almost, Ryland Angel, The Bird and The Bee, KORN, Joe Lovano, Dean Martin, MIMs, Relient K, Saosin, TobyMac and Yellowcard, with additional EMI artists rolling out SNOCAP MyStores in coming weeks.

Phonecasting.com launched its Web site today for the purpose of letting users create “phonecasting” episodes which can be listened to by others over the phone or as a download. Accounts are free for publishers.

The Phonecasting.com service works by having a publisher record a phonecast which can be made available in the Phonecasting directory by auto-generated RSS feeds. Subscriber options for dialup, download and streaming are available to web site members from a computer or mobile phone.

Phonecasting.com seems to have netted a few big name publishers already:

• National Geographic News - 1 (415) 223-4135

• “We’re Talking Elvis” with your host DJ Fontana 1 (650) 523-6817
• TalkCrunch - 1 (831) 480-3920
• Chicago Bites 1 (708) 543-3423
• iPhone News 1 (510) 495-6368 +1 (510) 495-6368
• Spanish Daily Word 1 (1 (718) 977-5932

It should be noted normal calling rates apply for calling any of these numbers.

Toshiba said today the next generation DVD format it backs - HD DVD - will begin offering new titles which offer Web-enabled network capabilities. The goal of this new feature is to offer a higher degree of interactivity for HD DVD users.

Folks who update the firmware on their Toshiba HD DVD players, the consumer electronics company said, will find their device now supports improved network connectivity for downloading web-enabled network content. Going through the Ethernet ports one will be able to download and store bonus features or unlock content on the disc which requires a downloadable key. HD DVD owners will also be able to upload content and interact with content providers.

Web-enabled network content became available on June 26 with the launch of Bandai Visual’s anime title “Freedom” volume 1. This title is the first HD DVD anime title available in the United States, the first web-enabled network content disc and the first “twin format” disc (featuring both HD DVD and DVD on one side of the disc).

As the final hours of an iPhone free world count down Internet research firm comScore released data related to U.S. search activity for the last few months about Apple’s hot gadget. This data in summary shows an average of 274,000 iPhone searches per week since the beginning of the year.

The study shows that through June 24 nearly 6.9 million searches were conducted which include the term “iPhone.” The most commonly searched for related topics included iPhone price and iPhone release date. When the product was first announced in January iPhone searches hit over 1.1 million during the first week alone, settling down to a smaller range in the weeks following. After Apple did a big advertising push earlier this month search results jumped back over 1.2 million for the week ending June 24.

“The iPhone launch is likely to be one of the biggest product launches in history, and the activity we’re seeing online clearly reflects widespread consumer interest,” said James Lamberti, senior vice president of search solutions at comScore. “This study also helps underscore the significant role search plays in both online and offline retail, since many of those researching the product online will be lining up at the bricks-and-mortar retailers to purchase their new iPhones.”

Yes, in case you don’t know, Apple’s iPhone will go on sale this afternoon at 6:00 p.m. at Apple retail stores nationwide. All 164 Apple retail stores in the US will stay open until midnight, and customers can purchase up to two iPhones on a first come, first served basis. Beginning Saturday morning, iPhone customers can learn how to get the most out of the iPhone with free, in-depth workshops offered throughout the day at all Apple retail stores. Every Apple retail store will offer support for iPhone at the Genius Bar and personal training through Apple’s new One to One program.

“Apple retail stores were created for this moment – to let customers touch and experience a revolutionary new product,” said Ron Johnson, Apple’s senior vice president of Retail. “With our legendary Genius Bar support, free workshops and our One to One personal training, we’re here to help customers get the most from their new iPhone.”

iPhone introduces an entirely new user interface based on a revolutionary multi-touch display and pioneering new software that allows users to control iPhone with just a tap, flick or pinch of their fingers. iPhone combines three products into one small and lightweight handheld device-a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod, and the Internet in your pocket with best-ever applications on a mobile phone for email, web browsing and maps. iPhone ushers in an era of software power and sophistication never before seen in a mobile device, which completely redefines what users can do on their mobile phones.

iPhone will be available in a 4GB model for $499 (US) and an 8GB model for $599 (US), and will work with either a PC or Mac.

With today’s launch of the Apple iPhone, scammers and thieves are coming out of the woodwork. ScamBusters.org, a public service website that has helped over 9 million people protect themselves from Internet scams since 1994, offers predictions about the Top 7 online and offline iPhone scams, as well as tips to avoid getting ripped off.

Here Is ScamBusters.org’s List of the Top 7 iPhone Scams:
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