• Comcast’s Killelea to keynote CBL&D 2009
By Traci Patterson

The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers announced that Grace Killelea, Comcast’s vice president of talent and leadership initiatives, will keynote the SCTE Conference on Broadband Learning & Development (CBL&D) 2009.

Killelea’s speech will focus on the importance of developing a personal brand that can enable individuals to operate at their highest level, according to the SCTE.

The SCTE’s CBL&D 2009 is set for Oct. 27 in Denver during Cable-Tec Expo.

• Sprint, Samsung launch biodegradable phone
By Peter Svensson, AP Technology Writer

NEW YORK (AP) – Sprint Nextel Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co. said Thursday they will sell a $49.99 "eco-conscious" phone with a casing of biodegradable plastic made partly from corn.

Several manufacturers have made "green" phones, but they have generally been bare-bones devices, like Motorola Inc.'s Renew, carried by T-Mobile USA. Nokia Corp.'s Evolve is also a simple, low-end phone and lacks the backing of a U.S. carrier.

The new Samsung Reclaim is a more fully featured phone, sporting a slide-out alphabetic keyboard, e-mail and Web access, a camera and GPS navigation. The phone goes on sale Aug. 16. The plastic of the casing is 40 percent corn-based. The phone's charger lights up when the phone is fully charged, to remind the owner to unplug it to save electricity.

David Owens, Sprint Nextel Corp.'s director of product marketing, said the company is paying more than the usual amount of subsidies to Samsung to bring the price down to $49.99 for customers signing two-year contracts. "We took a big step to put it under the $50 price because that's where we know there's a lot of volume," he said. The price applies after a $50 mail-in rebate.