We’ve blogged about Comcast Business Class before, but how do we define what makes a small business a small business? That’s a good question, and Kevin O’Toole, a frequent Comcast Voices blogger, answers it in this interview with Jill Horner on Comcast Local Edition.

Kevin and Jill also discuss the various services that Comcast offers through Comcast Business Class, and how those services can help small businesses, well, get down to business.

Click on the Continue Reading link to watch the video.

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Did you know you can setup SmartZone to check email for all your email accounts across the web including all your secondary comcast.net accounts and 3rd party email accounts like Google and AOL? We recently released enhancements to this capability that makes the process more user friendly. These enhancements include the ability to view all your added accounts from the Home tab in SmartZone, set the reply to address for each account, and when replying to any email, select the email address from which you would like replies to come.

Also, we recently launched a feature that provides comcast.net secondary users in your household access to your Comcast Digital Voice (CDV) voice mail online directly from SmartZone (Phew, no longer responsible for passing voice mail messages on to my wife!) Just in case you are worried about security or don't want to allow a secondary user access to voice mail online, the primary user will need to grant access to voice mail for the secondary user. We have all the instructions, right here, for you to go set that up. Again, the primary user must grant access, so if you have a secondary account, let the primary user know.

Coming up next...a SmartZone Calendar tab, additional CDV online calling features, reading pane preferences, and the ability to send email to multiple contacts directly from your address book. Stay tuned!

Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A. If you instantly recognized that seemingly random collection of words as the cheat code for Contra, you are not alone. In fact, chances are, you were in line late Monday night at one of the many retailers participating in the midnight release of Modern Warfare 2, the long-awaited sequel to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

I was getting ready to sleep when my husband told me he was leaving to pick up a video game. “REALLY?” I have never heard of midnight releases for video games before, so I thought I would check it out. I was shocked. Every store we passed that sold video games had lines stretching from their doors and spilling into the parking lots.

I’m not much of a gamer myself. But one need only watch the opening credits to video games such as Modern Warfare 2 or Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, to truly appreciate the leaps and bounds the gaming industry has made since its humble 8-bit roots. And it is not just the technological boundaries these games are pushing. Modern Warfare 2 actually has an option to bypass certain missions that may be offensive to some players. I can’t imagine what would make these missions offensive to an already desensitized fan base of diehard adrenaline junkies.

If you sacrificed precious hours of game play for sleep, do not panic. You can get your fix from G4 On Demand... you know, until you can get to the store.

Get all your Modern Warfare 2 inside info and visit The Cutting Edge>G4>Modern Warfare 2

Today our friends at NewTeeVee hosted their annual get together where folks in the know about online video meet, greet, and talk about the future. NewTeeVee Live 09, as it is called, is always worth your attention, this year especially if you’ve been waiting for some more details about On Demand Online, our effort to make all those great cable shows that you love to watch available for watching via the Internet (see stories about On Demand Online here and here).

Amy Banse, President of Comcast Interactive Media (known as CIM to its friends), broke some news about On Demand Online at the conference. First off, we’ll be rolling it out in December and you’ll be able to access it either from home or on the go (assuming, of course, you’re a Comcast subscriber). You’ll be able to view On Demand Online content from up to three different devices, you just need to login for the first time at home to authorize the device. Once authorized you’ll be able to access On Demand Online on that device where ever you have an Internet connection.

Amy wasn’t the only Comcaster at NewTeeVee Live. Frank Eliason, @comcastcares, was onsite tweeting and answering questions about people’s Comcast service.

Are you excited about On Demand Online? Let us know in the comments and be sure to watch the video from Amy’s session after the jump.

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A couple of readers have suggested that I write about Comcast services/features that help make their businesses more productive. It’s a theme almost anyone in business can relate to. We’re all challenged to do more with less. Often, we have to save money by piling lots of small efficiencies together – use less color ink, shop for cheaper flights, and take clients to cheaper restaurants. These are worthy efforts, but I prefer hunting down those one or two big ticket items that create large, systemic benefits for a long time.

Yankee Group just finished a research study (that’s a link to the PDF) for us. We asked them to compare the cost of a small business operating its own email server vs. the cost of using the Hosted Microsoft Communications Services that are included with Comcast Business Class Internet.

I found the results to be striking and (honestly) far more compelling that I would have guessed.

First, some full disclosure: we paid Yankee Group to do the study. We wanted a third party assessment to ensure the analysis wasn’t clouded by our own enthusiasm. Yankee did a nice job of being impartial (despite who was footing the bill), balanced, and detail oriented. Obviously, you’ll need to reach your own conclusions.

Here’s the punch line: Yankee estimates that a 25 person firm can save $11,500 during the first year by using Business Class Internet with Hosted Microsoft Communications rather than operating their own email server. Smaller firms would see savings roughly proportional to their smaller size.

Even if you assumed Yankee was off by 50%, that’s still a single item where a small business can save over $5000…and likely get faster Internet, better collaboration tools, and improve mobile messaging to go along with it.

You can find the full report at http://business.comcast.com/learn/business-tips-insights.aspx.

As ever, I’ll be interested to hear your thoughts & perspectives on the study and your own experiences. For existing customers who haven’t activated your Hosted Microsoft Communication Services please go to https://businessclass.comcast.net to get started.

I admit to withholding this piece of information from my recent blog about the Beyond School Walls Reverse Day at Fairhill School in Philadelphia: the library had no books.

Today it has more than 1,600 books, along with four high-end Macs and a laser printer, thanks to the can-do spirit of a group of Comcast Big Brothers and Big Sisters.

This is one of the coolest, most genuine stories I’ve had the opportunity to report in my 30+ years as a writer. Here’s how it happened.

June 4 was the culmination of year one for the John Alchin Beyond School Walls pilot program at Fairhill. Instead of the Littles coming to the Comcast Center, our Bigs visited them at Fairhill … thus, “Reverse Day.”

Lunch was set up in the library which, due to a series of unfortunate circumstances, had rows and rows of empty shelves. It was impossible not to notice, and our Bigs exchanged curious glances with each other and quietly asked among themselves, “this is the library, right?”

On the bus ride home about an hour later, the only topic of conversation was how to rectify the situation. An idea for a book drive was hatched, and it took about a nano-second for Comcast senior management to approve.

We partner with great organizations such as Big Brothers Big Sisters for many reasons, the key being a chance to make a real difference in young lives. Basic literacy unlocks opportunity, and is a building block to the unlimited horizons presented by digital literacy.

So in addition to the books collected by the Bigs, the Comcast Foundation donated four computers and a laser printer. Suddenly a neat but barren room was transformed into a multi-media center for the entire school to experience.

Kids told us they’d be able to do their homework in the library, easily perform research that used to take hours or days, and simply enjoy reading the wide range of books that now fill the shelves.

The books were unloaded from a Comcast truck parked in the middle of Somerset Street on a crisp, bright, sunny day. As local media snapped pictures and jockeyed for position with their video cameras, I noticed principal Luisa Garcia-Soler beaming as box after box loaded with books crossed the threshold of her school.

It was a really good day.

I’m here at the Family Online Safety Institute’s annual conference in Washington, DC learning a bit about digital literacy and online safety.

Today’s keynote was delivered by Kyle McSlarrow, President & CEO of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (known as NCTA in the industry). Kyle started off his talk by pointing out that the cable industry as a whole offers broadband to about 92% of American households, so clearly online safety is of great interest to the entire cable industry.

Kyle spoke about PointSmart, ClickSafe initiative which was originally launched to point customers towards the tools and information they need to enjoy the Internet, and all that it offers, in the safest manner possible. The original initiative focused heavily on bringing awareness to these tools, but the members of the initiative felt more could be done.

That led to the formation of the PointSmart blue ribbon group tasked with creating best practices for fostering both digital literacy and online safety. The blue ribbon group produced a report (available at http://www.pointsmartreport.org/) which outlines a number of best practices for digital literacy and online safety.

At the core of the report is the idea that online safety can’t be neatly compartmentalized — it is an issue that impacts a whole ecosystem made up of ISPs, parents, schools, children, and federal agencies. Given the complexity of the issue, the PointSmart blue ribbon group makes a number of recommendations to policy makers. Kyle highlighted a few in his keynote:

• Create a lead agency to deal with online safety and digital literacy

• Develop a set of national goals for online safety

• Supporting digital literacy and online safety through increased federal funding for curriculum development, professional development for teachers, and public awareness campaigns.

Kyle spent the rest of his talk expanding on that last point. NCTA has called for the creation of a national Digital Media Literacy Program to help overworked teachers introduce digital literacy into their curriculums. This program would focus on educating kids and parents about online dangers (some clear, and others not so clear) and how to use all the great tools that are out there. The key to this proposal is that it would be national in scope, and would deliver a consistent message, much like any other subject taught in school.

Of course, we here at Comcast are major supporters of digital literacy, which is why we’re so involved with One Economy and the Digital Connectors program (read the post in which David Cohen introduces the Comcast Digital Connectors program, and take a look at this video shot by Gene Morris). Education, along with technological tools, is the best way to make sure you and your children enjoy all that the Internet has to offer in as safe a way as possible.

As always, be sure to check out http://security.comcast.net/ for more information about general Internet security and access the tools we make available for our customers.

The Liberty Bell. Independence Hall. The National Constitution Center. Those are just some of the things that Philadelphia brings to mind, and now you can add another: Comcast High-Speed 2go. Today we’re happy to announce that Comcast customers in Philadelphia can now take advantage of our wireless 4G network using a wireless data card (see our previous posts about the roll outs in Atlanta and Portland).

Chances are, if you’re reading this, that you’re already a Comcast High Speed Internet customer and that’s where the “Fast Pack” comes in. The Fast Pack bundles a High-Speed 2go card with your home Comcast Internet connection so you’ll be connected at home and on the go.

There are two variants of High-Speed 2go that you should be aware of:

• Comcast High-Speed 2go Metro: This is the plan you want if you are generally out and about in a metro area. This plan includes 4G coverage only, which is generally found in larger cities.
• Comcast High-Speed 2go Nationwide: If you spend your time traveling across the country this is the plan you’ll want to go with. With this plan your High-Speed 2go card use the faster 4G network when it is available, and make use of Sprint’s 3G network when you aren’t within 4G coverage.

For pricing, coverage maps, and FAQs check out www.comcast.com/highspeed2go.

Halloween is tomorrow, and I’m sure you’re all looking for some spooky ideas to help celebrate it in style. We’ve already posted about all the scary movies you can watch On Demand, and all the Halloween themed shows you can catch on Fancast… but what about costumes, decorations, and food? No Halloween party should be without them!

I know that most folks think of Halloween as a holiday for kids, but parents should be able to have some fun as well. Our friends at Parents TV (listed under the Kids section of On Demand) show you have to create a great maternity costumes, treats for the kids (and young at heart), and some crafts that you can do with your children.

You’ll also find costume ideas for the kids from Activity TV. Who doesn’t want to be a werewolf, witch, or flying ghost? Talk about classic Halloween outfits.

Speaking of Halloween classics I can’t think of something that screams Halloween more than a jack-o-lantern. You can get pumpkin carving tips from Martha Stewart, the queen of all that is crafty. Listed under Life & Home > Martha Stewart. Martha and friends show you how to take your pumpkin to the next level with a ton of tricks and inspiration.

I hope everyone out there has a safe and happy Halloween!

Halloween is this Saturday and I can’t think of a better way to get in the mood for trick or treating than watching some scary movies. Fancast has a whole section devoted to a variety of spooky (and funny) halloween themed shows and movies.

I don’t know about you, but Halloween just isn’t Halloween without a viewing of It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and, as you might have guessed, you can watch it on Fancast (which I’ll be doing on Saturday night as I hand out candy).

What’s your favorite Halloween moment from TV? Are you a fellow Peanuts aficionado, or do you prefer the Treehouse of Horror? Sound off in the comments.