What does 2009 have in store for the Internet?

What will happen to the Internet in 2009?

Standard & Poor's Internet analyst Scott Kessler has a few predictions.

He says Microsoft and Yahoo will "bury the hatchet" to better compete against Google. He doubts Microsoft will buy Yahoo but may pursue a joint venture in search, which would boost Yahoo's shares.

On the other hand, Apple and Google might get out the hatchet. Kessler predicts the companies' relationship could grow "uneasy" as the two tech giants increasingly compete on the mobile front (Apple has its iPhone and Google has its Android mobile operating system). Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt sits on Apple's board. Awkward.

In last year's predictions, Kessler had some hits and misses. He guessed that Google would continue to make inroads in mobile. Correct. He also predicted that Yahoo would have a better 2008 than 2007. He says "we were painfully close in that prediction but resoundingly wrong nonetheless."

"Painful" seems the most technically correct term to sum up Yahoo's 2008.

-- Jessica Guynn

Photo: Google CEO Eric Schmidt on "Meet the Press" with former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina. Credit: Alex Wong / Getty Images

Steve Jobs illness rumors return, Apple stock falls

Another day, another Steve-Jobs-is-sick rumor to drive down Apple's stock price.

Gizmodo, the well-respected gadget blog, reported today that a source who has been reliable in the past said Jobs' health was "rapidly declining" and that the Apple chief executive's health troubles were the real reason why he wouldn't give the keynote address at the Macworld Conference & Expo next Tuesday.

The Gizmodo report, though hedged by the blog as unconfirmed, reversed Apple's stock gain on the day (shares had been trading up but then fell before closing at $86.29, down 32 cents. Tom Petruno at the Money & Co. blog notes that day traders may have seen opportunity in the renewed concern about the health of Apple's high-profile CEO, who fought off pancreatic cancer a few years ago and has appeared gaunt recently.

It makes sense that Jobs' health is an issue for Apple shareholders. But that also means there's an incentive for traders to take advantage of the situation, by spreading rumors, or playing them. (Note, though, that this is not a heavily "shorted" stock; the number of shorted shares was just 21 million in mid-December, of 890 million shares outstanding.)

Apple told Bloomberg News: "If ever Steve or the board of directors decide that Steve isn’t able to do his job, I’m sure they’ll let you know." CNBC's Jim Goldman called the Gizmodo report "flimsy at best" and said his sources inside Apple had insisted that Jobs was just fine. "When Apple's got something material to report, I trust that it will," Goldman wrote. "Meantime, unsourced garbage nuking its shares is just that."

-- Chris Gaither

Photo: Apple CEO Steve Jobs in October. Credit: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

Best iPhone apps: Tip, AroundMe, BlackJack Run and a ridiculous one*

Once you tire of the lightsabers, virtual lighters and games, there are some sensible apps that help the iPhone become a better tool.

The most useful app I used this year would be Tip by Carlos Perez. For a whopping 99 cents you get a bare bones but elegant tip calculator that easily lets you figure out how much to leave for the waiter, waitress or bartender.

Tip may not be as fancy as some of the other 30-odd tip calculators available for the iPhone, but it does the job in a simple way and can be used with one thumb while under the influence of a full meal and a couple of drinks.

An app that I can envision Google buying one day is called AroundMe. It lists hotels, restaurants, gas stations and banks near you. Once you let your iPhone figure out where you are, AroundMe will tell you exactly how far any number of destinations will be, and they make it easy to add the information to your contacts. Developed by TweakerSoft, AroundMe is free.

Strangely, the game that caught most of my attention this year was the unassuming BlackJack Run card game from SeaHorse Software. Simple to learn, but surprisingly addictive.

You have 30 seconds to work with five hands in a blackjack game. A card is shown, you place it in a hand and continue until either the time runs out, you bust or you click stop.

Since each round usually takes about 15 seconds, you can get in a game before the crosswalk lights change.

BlackJackRun Lite, which I play, is free, and the deluxe version with some more scoring screens is $4.99.

After the jump, the most ridiculous app that I used the most in 2008 ...

Texting while driving: everything you need to know about the new law

On New Year's Day, it will become illegal to text message while driving in California. You probably have a lot of questions about what precisely that means: Can you still use your BlackBerry to get directions while driving? What about checking Major League Baseball scores? Can you text while stuck in horrible traffic on the I-5?

The very patient Jaime Coffee, an information officer with the California Highway Patrol, has responded to our Twenty-plus Questions concerning just about every possible way the new law may be put to the test. Turns out you can't browse the Web while driving or text while sitting at a red light. But checking Major League Baseball scores or texting while riding a bicycle seem to be OK. Here's an edited transcript of our e-mail conversation with Coffee.

Q: Is it illegal to send an e-mail from your mobile device while driving?
A: Yes. Please refer to VC 23123.5 (b) (PDF download). As used in this section "write, send, or read a text-based communication" means using an electronic wireless communications device to manually communicate with any person using a text-based communication, including, but not limited to, communications referred to as a text message, instant message or electronic mail.

Q: Is it illegal to browse the Web while driving?
A: Yes. Refer to VC 27602 (a). A person may not drive a motor vehicle if a television receiver, a video monitor or a television or video screen, or any other similar means of visually displaying a television broadcast or video signal that produces entertainment or business applications, is operating and is located in the motor vehicle at any point forward of the back of the driver's seat, or is operating and visible to the driver while driving the motor vehicle.

Q: Is it illegal to type directions into a digital map or GPS program on your phone while driving? 
A: No. The law does not say you can't type directions into a map or GPS program on your phone. 

Q: If you are texting a company or website, such as MLB.com, as opposed to a person, is it still illegal to text while driving?
A: Technically speaking ... if the text-based communication is not going to another "person" you're not in violation. The new law addresses two-way communication. However, we don't encourage or condone any activity that could place you in jeopardy or harm's way. If sending this message causes the driver to become distracted, and affects the safe operation of the vehicle, an officer can pull the driver over and cite for unsafe operation of a motor vehicle, etc.

Q: If you are stopped at a red light, can you text while sitting at the red light?
A: No, it's against the law. If you are stopped at a light or a stop sign, you are still in control of that vehicle and need to be able to react.

Q: If you are sitting in a traffic jam and your car is not moving, is it illegal to text while driving?
A: Yes, it is still illegal. Again, you are still in control of the vehicle and should focus 100% of your attention to its safe operation.

More questions and answers, including whether it's legal to text while parked, after the jump.

Around the Web 12.30.08: Tiny computers, shrinking laptops and lower PlayStation 3 costs

-- Pick your nominee for best supporting robot. Cinema Blend

-- Small is beautiful in molecular computing. Science Daily via Slashdot

-- Sony pares down the cost of PlayStation 3, but not enough to break even, iSuppli says. TG Daily

-- Is Digg rigged? You be the judge. YouTube

-- Netbooks said (again) to be the next wave of personal computers. Slate

-- Adjust your own prescription eyeglasses. Neatorama

-- A new hack can threaten security of e-commerce sites. Washington Post

-- Speaking of e-commerce, here's a comparison of online merchants. NYT

-- Another set of lists: best and worst tech places to work, assuming they're hiring. TechCrunch

-- Alex Pham

Photo: Scene from "Wall-E."  Credit: Pixar Animation Studios

FC founder Philip Kaplan has new online service in the works

As the founder of a site with an obscene name that ruthlessly chronicled the flame-out of the dot-coms, Philip Kaplan was the ultimate bad boy of Web 1.0.

He blasted onto the Web 2.0 scene, armed with the insights he gained selling advertising on his unmentionable website. Gone were the trademark snark and coarse bravado. He traded New York City for San Francisco, ground zero for the Internet boom and bust, and, as we described in a 2005 profile, established himself as a respectable online advertising entrepreneur backed by blue-chip Silicon Valley venture capital firm Sequoia Capital.

"I knew that if I concentrated on AdBrite I could probably make a big company out of it," he wrote in a  e-mail to followers of his old site, which he calls "FC" to get past spam filters.

"But leave my cushy life in NYC? No more waking up at noon, updating FC for an hour, and spending the rest of the day cashing FC checks and watching porn? ... It was a hard decision, but, like, I'm a man now. Twenty-nine!"

Now that the bleak economy is once again using the Internet as a punching bag Manny Pacquiao style, plenty of folks urged Kaplan to reprise his role as savager of start-ups. But Kaplan burst that bubble.

Instead, we soon may meet a much kinder, gentler incarnation of Kaplan. He is encouraging friends via Twitter to sign up for a new service called the Kaplan Index, which says it's going to help people "get recognized for your skills in 2009." It will launch in the next few weeks. In a nod to his notorious past, he has reclaimed his old nickname, Pud.

What that says, if anything, about his online ad venture, AdBrite, is unclear.

Kaplan ain't talking about his new project yet. We'll let you know when he does.

-- Jessica Guynn

Photo: Philip Kaplan, founder of the Kaplan Index. Credit: Anne Dowie / For The Times

Book review: 'Grown Up Digital' analyzes the Net generation

It is the privilege -- or possibly the curse -- of each new generation to be different from the last. But rarely has a generational divide been as noticeable as that between those in their early 20s and the baby boomers.

This, at any rate, is the proposition put forward by Don Tapscott, a management professor at the University of Toronto and author a decade ago of "Growing Up Digital: The Rise of the Net Generation." In his latest book, "Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation Is Changing Your World," he argues that senior corporate managers must strive to understand what he calls the Net Generation -- born between 1977 and 1997 -- often described as Generation Y.

Too often, he says, the generation that grew up with the Internet is derided by employers as ill-informed, Web-addicted, unfocused, poorly read and narcissistic.

But in a long-running, $4-million research project involving thousands of interviews with 16- to 19-year-olds in 12 countries and comparative interview programs with earlier generations, Tapscott and his team reached a different view.

Read the full book review here.

-- Richard Donkin

Around the Web 12.29.08: Howard Stern's lost relevance, California's lost taxes, websites' lost connections

-- California officials are warning businesses that they need to pay use taxes for goods bought out of state, including through Amazon.com and other e-commerce sites, or risk audits. LAT

-- Howard Stern has lost his clout since transitioning to satellite radio. And the industry faces an uncertain future, as the merger of XM and Sirius hasn't done much to bolster its financial stability. NYT

-- Connectivity and censorship problems have gotten Sony's Home virtual world off to a rough start. SF Chronicle

-- What would an iPhone Pro look like? Gizmodo

-- Some major websites suffered sporadic outages Sunday because of an apparent Internet backbone problem. TechCrunch

--  Kickback schemes like the one a Fry's executive is accused of are more common in emerging markets. Mercury News

-- Vaporware 2008: The top 10 promised products that didn't materialize during the year. Wired

-- Chris Gaither

Photo: Amy Sancetta / Associated Press

Ladies and gentlemen, the $99 iPhone

If you haven't spent enough this holiday season and are in the market for a new phone before the calendar turns to 2009, you might be pleased to know that Apple is offering a $99 iPhone until Dec. 31. It's 8 GB, black and "refurbished," which means "previously owned devices that have been unused or lightly used and returned during the 30-day trial period," according to an explanation on AT&T's website.

The $99 iPhone has been speculated about so much that the announcement, finally, is kind of a letdown —  kind of like how you might feel if you were waiting and waiting for Christmas this year, and then it passed and you have to go back to work tomorrow. The word I'm looking for here is "meh."

Some bloggers had speculated that Wal-Mart would sell a 4 GB, $99 iPhone that would be a permanent fixture in the stores.The retail giant quashed those rumors Friday when it announced that it would be selling the iPhone 3G, beginning today, for $197, which is two whole dollars less than Apple's retail price.

Still think it's a bargain? Remember: You might end up spending those two extra dollars on gas driving to Wal-Mart, or circling the parking lot looking for spaces when you get there.

— Alana Semuels

Photo by William Hook via Flickr

Lalawag hopes to get tongues wagging about L.A. technology

It might be the final sign that the L.A. tech scene is something to be reckoned with. Months after Gawker Media laid off much of the staff of Silicon Valley news and gossip site Valleywag, an independent news and gossip site has been created in Los Angeles to focus on firings, hirings and romances in the L.A. tech scene. It's called Lalawag but has no association with Valleywag.

"There's a lot going on in this community and there's not a lot of really great coverage of it," said founder Sean Percival, whose day job is as the content director of start-up Tsavo. He and two paid staffers will do videos of events around town and even plan some events of their own.

Still, not everybody might be happy that a Valleywag-like site has made it to L.A. Who wants to have the fact that they've been laid off or too drunk at the office holiday party broadcast to people you might want to work with down the road? Percival says those people don't have to worry.

"I'm not looking to be hated, just mildly feared," he said.

Andrew Warner, founder of mixergy.com, an events website for start-ups, said L.A. tech geeks might not mind being gossiped about on a public blog. This is Hollywood, after all.

"People here are much more excited about being talked about in any way," he said. "Even if it's like the supermarket tabloids, they'll be secretly excited about it."

Valleywag's snarky tone has generated criticism over the years from people who describe it as inaccurate or sexist. One posting, for example, called Facebook's female employees "Valley foxes" and described one particularly attractive employee as "best appreciated with the mute button on."

"They're really gossipy; they don't care about people's reputations," said Adriana Gascoigne, who founded Girls in Tech, an organization to bring together women working in technology.

She remembers being asked whether she would enter a video blogging contest for Valleywag, thinking it was a contest to determine the best video blogger in Silicon Valley. She was surprised when it turned into a monthlong contest about who was the "hottest" blogger in Silicon Valley. Still, she thinks Lalawag will be a good thing for L.A. -- if it takes an approach different from Valleywag's.

"L.A. is a huge, growing digital hub," Gascoigne said. "It's important that somebody talks about it and really highlights the activity taking place."

-- Alana Semuels

Photo: Lalawag will cover the L.A. tech scene, pictured here at Twiistup. Credit: Mike Macaadan via Flickr