WASHINGTON – More than half of all adult Americans have accessed the internet through a mobile connection, according to a recent study by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project. Mobile devices — laptop computers, cell phones, gaming consoles, and music and video players — are firmly entrenched in the digital age.

The survey, conducted in April, indicated 56 percent of American adults have accessed email, instant messaging or websites via a mobile device. Thirty-nine percent used a laptop computer; the next-largest group, at 32 percent, used cellular phones. Cell-phone Web access rose by one-third since December 2007, when only 24 percent of Americans had visited the internet on a handset.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Asia, Africa and the Middle East will lead online growth for the next five years while the industrialized West slows to a crawl, according to a new report from Forrester Research.

In 2008, the top five countries in terms of numbers of internet users were the U.S., China, Japan, Brazil and Germany, in that order. By 2013, demographics will shift. The list is expected to become China, the U.S., India, Japan and Brazil.

Worldwide, the global online population will grow more than 45 percent to 2.2 billion users by 2013, according to the report. Asia remains the biggest growth engine: 43 percent of the world’s online population will reside in Asia by 2013, with 17 percent of the global online population in China.

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Look out, world. Following the revelation that Adobe’s Flash video player and Acrobat Reader include an un-patched vulnerability, experts predict “holey” hell for users if the company doesn't deliver a promised patch by Friday.

The vulnerability allows hackers to install malicious code on users’ computers through websites, Flash downloads and even infected PDF files. The process exists as more than just a proof of concept: Since early July, malware authors have spread their wares by emailing infected files and implanting code on hacked websites.

CHICAGO – Despite changing the name of its popular “erotic services” section, removing the most graphic photographs in the new “adult services” listings and agreeing to screen all ads for potentially illegal offers, Craigslist remains the target of allegations it is complicit in illegal sexual commerce.

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart has refused to drop the federal lawsuit he filed against the online classified ads giant in March, saying Craigslist is “playing games” and has no intention of cleaning up its virtual act. Dart wants the court to order Craigslist to stop offering any kind of adult ads, period.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal agreed with Dart’s assessment of “games,” accusing Craigslist of turning its figurative head while the same people post the same illicit ads couched in vaguer, more socially acceptable terms.

CUPERTINO, Calif. - Offender Locator, one of the hottest new iPhone apps, costs less than a buck and provides users with the mapped locations of registered sex offenders living in their area or wherever the phone happens to be. It has become so popular, in fact, that it recently cracked the Top 10 paid app list.

GENEVA – Gay-rights activists who developed a parody website to embarrass and annoy a conservative think tank may keep their intentionally “confusingly similar” domain name, the World Intellectual Property Organization has ruled.

WIPO allowed the owners of SutherlandInstitute.com to retain their domain name because the website clearly identifies itself as satire and does not attempt commercial exploitation of the Sutherland Institute’s service mark or domain, SutherlandInstitute.org. The institute had demanded possession of SutherlandInstitute.com based on a “bad faith” use of the offending URL.