iPhone, one of the most hyped products ever and occasionally called the "Jesus phone" like it was the Second Coming, is about to hit the market so Apple figured it had better say "one more thing" before it casts off.

The gadget is going to be able to access YouTube content. IPhone will be the first mobile device to take advantage of YouTube's new H.264-encoded format, which is supposed to improve video quality and preserve battery life.

This, and AJAX, we're told, makes it a platform, not to say the newest high school fashion accessory, although third-party programmers say they are barred from creating real applications.

Apple upgraded the battery to be good for a critic-addressing, still-to-be-proven eight hours of talk time, double what rivals like RIM and Palm can do. That's supposed to translate into six hours of Internet use, seven hours of video playback, 24 hours of audio playback or 250 hours of stand-by.

Apple's also substituted a more scratch-resistant optical glass screen for the original plastic.

Consumed with iPhone fever, Piper Jaffrey figures the $500-$600 iPhone's good for $15 billion in revenues (45 million units) in 2009 versus Apple's estimated $13 billion in computer sales, which are supposed to benefit from iPhone's halo. Saying so of course doesn't make it so.

Meanwhile, AT&T, iPhone's sole carrier who hadn't revealed what all the two-year service contract will cost by press time, says 40% of the million inquiries it's gotten are from people who aren't currently its wireless customers. It's thrilled.

It's hired an extra 2,000 temporary workers to deal with the iPhone rush though none of AT&T's retail staff have hands-on experience. Shop sales start at 6pm local time Friday June 29. It expects to run out of stock in some stores almost immediately and it's got scalping worries.

We'll spare you the silliness of the Google-buys-Apple blog speculation, but Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who's on Apple's board, has been touting the iPhone. Pre-launch he had one and took it to Paris this week to show it off.

Well, other than YouTube, it does include Google search and maps and Schmidt said, "It's particularly good for the apps that Google is building. You should expect other announcements from the two companies." Of course, iPhone won't be available in Paris.

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