Apple CEO Jobs expected to unveil 3G iPhone

Apple Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs may unveil an iPhone today that works with faster wireless networks in a bid to lure business users from the BlackBerry and reach more international customers.

Jobs, to speak at Apple's developers conference in San Francisco this morning, probably will announce an updated iPhone that works with so-called third-generation, or 3G, networks, said Gene Munster, a Piper Jaffray analyst.

Higher speed, combined with software due this month that links the iPhone to corporate e-mail systems, may make it a bigger threat to the BlackBerry and help Jobs reach his goal of selling 10 million phones this year. The lack of 3G capability also has limited the iPhone's appeal among overseas users.

Supercomputer

New machine sets speed record

A U.S. military supercomputer, assembled from components first designed for video-game machines, has set a computing milestone by processing more than 1.026 quadrillion calculations per second.

The new machine is more than twice as fast as the previous fastest supercomputer, the IBM BlueGene/L.

The $133 million supercomputer, called Roadrunner, was devised and built at IBM and Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

It will be used mainly to solve classified military problems to ensure that the nation's nuclear weapons will work correctly as they age.

Thomas P. D'Agostino, the administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, said that if all 6 billion people on Earth used hand calculators and performed calculations 24 hours a day and seven days a week, it would take them 46 years to do what Roadrunner can in one day.

Lehman Brothers

Bank nears snagging $5 billion in capital

Lehman Brothers Holdings is close to raising more than $5 billion of capital from a group of primarily U.S. investors, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday, adding a deal could be announced today or Tuesday.

Lehman, the nation's fourth-largest investment bank, is set to report a second-quarter loss of more than $2 billion, The Journal said. Until recently, reports pegged the loss somewhere between $300 million and $700 million.

Freescale

Chip maker plans to spin off unit

Freescale Semiconductor, the chip maker taken private in 2006, is expected to announce today it will join with venture-capital firms to spin off a unit that focuses on a newer kind of computer memory.

The entity, EverSpin Technologies, comes as Freescale seeks to pare its product line.

Freescale will give its portfolio of a memory technology called MRAM to EverSpin and hold a stake in the new company.

A group of outside firms, including New Venture Partners, Sigma Partners, Lux Capital, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Epic Ventures, will invest a total of about $20 million.

MRAM, or magnetoresistive random access memory, uses less power than conventional designs and is more stable.

Comcast / Time Warner

Cable giants try out new billing methods

Cable-service operators Comcast and Time Warner Cable said they will begin separate tests that will slow Internet access for heavy users and charge more to those who want additional speed.

The tests come as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) wraps up an investigation this month on complaints that Comcast blocked certain users from sharing video, music and other files.

Compiled from The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Associated Press and Bloomberg News