How first iPhoneslost their cool

HOW WELL IS the most hyped product in history maintaining its status as a status symbol?

It should come as no surprise that two months after its July launch, the iPhone remains a head-turner.

I've been styling and profiling with one for the last two weeks, shamelessly flaunting it to see if the device's sex appeal remains intact.

The first 12 days of this exercise was almost as much of a no-brainer as a study released this week by the cognitive science program at Indiana University that found that men like their women pretty.

Here's what Part One of my iPhone cognitive science study found: It makes you a tiny bit cooler and a tad more popular. Where was the iPhone when I needed it in high school? Sob. It could've gotten me a hot date for prom. The girls would have been looking at me through iPhone goggles. No, wait. It was mostly tech geek guys who were doing the oohing and ahhing. So I guess it actually would have gotten me a tech geek guy date to the prom.

Things changed during the last couple of days of my little study, though, because Apple and AT&T slashed the price of the 8GB iPhone by $200 Wednesday, making those who paid $599 just the day before look and feel like pretentious dupes. Now if you flaunt an iPhone in line at Starbucks, people may think you're uncool. They may think you're the kind of person who overpays for effect. You know, the kind of person who prides himself on paying $5 for a latte just so he can walk around with a Starbucks cup in his big, fat, stupid hand.

So, um, is that a pre-Sept. 5, $599 iPhone you just hid in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?

The reason for the steep price cut so soon after the iPhone launch is Apple CEO Steve Jobs' surprise introduction of the new iPod Touch--essentially a cheaper, even cooler, even slimmer, even sexier iPod than the iPhone.

It doesn't make phone calls--or require a costly two-year contract with AT&T.

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