Philadelphia

Reach into your pockets after a business trip. You've got business cards, crumpled receipts and perhaps other scraps of paper with information needed for databases, expense reports and tax time. Dealing with this mess of paper is as much fun as visiting the dentist.

The new NeatDesk desktop scanner I've been testing can help you through this drill. It combines a speedy sheet-fed scanner with digital filing-system software called NeatWorks 4.0 that neatly sorts and organizes the information. For now, the scanner works with Windows only; a Mac version is expected in 2009.

Mona Shaw drew instant fame last year after literally lowering the boom on her local Comcast office in Manassas, Va.

The 75-year-old Shaw reportedly was upset that Comcast had arrived two days late to install service, didn't complete the job, cut off her service and then left her lingering in a customer-service waiting area for hours before telling her that the manager had left for the day.

She came back later with a hammer, bashing a customer-service representative's phone and computer keyboard.

Internet users in the Northeast who have a need for speed will soon be able to get their fix from Comcast. The cable and Internet service provider said it will soon roll out its Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification, or DOCSIS 3.0, making customers' Internet speeds faster.

Comcast's service will be up and running in the next few weeks, according to the company, and will be available to millions of residential homes and businesses in parts of New England, including Boston and southern New Hampshire, plus Philadelphia and New Jersey.

'Just the Beginning'

Joe Soto, general manager of an advertising firm in Philadelphia, has a complicated relationship with his BlackBerry e-mail phone.

He felt "awful" and out of touch when he was without a BlackBerry for two days because his unit fell overboard when he was sailing on the Chesapeake.

At the same time, if he could turn back the clock five years, to before the BlackBerry took over corporate America, he would do it "in a minute."

"If everybody also threw their BlackBerrys away, I would too," he said, chuckling. "The only problem is, in my industry, it makes me more competitive."

Comcast Corp. said Tuesday that its investment in a joint venture to offer mobile Internet access to subscribers could be finalized by the end of the year.

Steve Burke, president of Philadelphia-based Comcast, said the new service would let cable companies offer "wireless data speeds that Verizon and AT&T can't match."

Comcast, the nation's largest cable TV operator, in May joined Time Warner Cable Inc., Intel Corp., Google Inc., Sprint Nextel Corp., Clearwire Corp. and other partners to form a $14.55 billion communications company that will offer high-speed mobile Internet access.

The road to advanced video, Internet and phone services is bumpy -- and the bumps can be almost as big as refrigerators.

As cable and phone companies race to upgrade services or offer video for the first time, they're doing it by installing equipment in boxes on lawns, easements and curbs all over American neighborhoods. Telecommunications rollouts have always been messy, but several towns and residents are fighting back with cries of "Not in my front yard!"

Ruchira Paul in Accidental Blogger:

The Federal Communications Commission is reportedly ready to take enforcement action against cable-TV giant Comcast for blocking Internet traffic. An investigation began after complaints from the public-interest group Free Press.

Philadelphia-based Comcast is the country's second-largest Internet service provider, with 14.1 million subscribers.

Unlocking a cell phone is something of a Houdini-esque exercise. Sure, it's possible to tweak a handset so it works on a network other than the one for which it was designed. But it requires following a series of steps that the average consumer may find complicated -- and which could render the device useless.

Comcast Corp. said Thursday that by early 2010 it plans to offer consumers in most of its markets Internet service so fast they will be able to download a high-definition movie in minutes.

The nation's second-largest Internet service provider -- and biggest cable TV operator -- will deploy a technology capable of delivering up to 100 megabits of data or more per second in 20 percent of its markets by the end of 2008, Comcast senior vice president of investor relations Marlene Dooner said at the Merrill Lynch U.S. Media Conference in London.