Originally we were going to have our Chip Chick team list every gadget they used the last ten years, be it low tech or high tech. But then we soon realized that would probably need a blog of its own. So instead we decided to list a few of the gadgets and technology that impacted our lives – good or bad over the last 10 years. As we all racked our brains to come up with this list, we couldn’t help feel a bit nostalgic and amazed at how fast technology has changed and then completely depressed by how many thousands of dollars was spent to get all of these wares!
“Chip Chick” Helena Stone, Editor in Chief
Nokia 8290 – It wasn’t the first cell phone I ever had, but it was the first GSM phone I had that let me both SEND and receive text messages. Unfortunately no one in the states that I knew at the time was able to send text messages yet, nor did they know what they were. So I racked up charges sending SMS’s back and forth to friends overseas where the folks are always a step ahead of us Americans. The phone also had faceplates, and I bought tons more of them off of eBay. I would match my phone to my outfit each time I went out and everyone thought that I was soooo cool. Now they probably wouldn’t.
Toshiba Pocket PC e750 – It wasn’t my first PDA. Actually, my first PDA was a Compaq Aero running Windows CE with a monochrome display. The Toshiba e750, however was a different beast with a color display and WiFi! Not that there were many places that had WiFi back then. Unfortunately, the first e750 got stolen out of my car trunk when I parked downtown in New York City one night, and the second one got left behind while I was strolling Ikea, never to be seen again. Sniff.
Rio 500 Mp3 Player – My first MP3 player. Back then there was no iPod, and hardly anyone knew what an MP3 player was. But this little DAP was so much smaller than my Discman, it was a little miracle. Unfortunately, the battery was pretty bad and only lasted a few hours. Still, I loved it and even went out and bought a 64MB SmartMedia card to expand its total memory to a whopping 128mb.
Samsung 14″ LCD (Model Unknown) – It was the first LCD display that was affordable at a time when 14″ LCDs typically would cost a grand. After that Samsung, CRTs left me forever and I never looked back.
Sharp Actius MM10 – This laptop weighed just 3lbs before netbooks ever existed. It cost $1499 but it was practically thin enough to slice bread, and I was really able to throw it into my purse. Sure it was slow as heck, but every time I pulled it out, people were blown away.
Lydia Leavitt, Features Editor
Sony RADIO Walkman – I remember strapping it on my arm PRE iPods and going running at the track at my highschool… during boys football practice.
Sony CD Walkman – Going skiing with a CD Walkman (which was rebranded from Discman in 2000) being all pumped up listening to Green Day at which point it would skip within one second and continue that way until you would finally give up.
Flat Iron/Hair Straightener – Ohhh the hair straightener. When frizzy hair went out of style.
Creepy Crawlers from Jakks Pacific – Amazing arts and crafts projects where you would mix this weird rubber cement and make your own centipede. I had a brother.
Droid – My social media world at my finger tips and it’s not an iPhone – in fact I’m going to tweet this as soon as it goes up.
Scott Schaen, Reporter
Tivo Series 1 – For encouraging me to not revolve my life around TV.
Oral B Pulsar Toothbrush – Because they cost just as much as the replaceable toothbrush heads and they last twice as long. Also it’s one less thing to keep plugged in your bathroom.
Viper Remote Starter for Your Car – So I didn’t have to freeze my butt off in the cold anymore looking for my keys and waiting for my car to warm up.
Linksys WRT-54g – For unleashing the wireless frontier into my home and for allowing us to settle with non-3G iPhones.
Flash Drives – Because they made the 3 1/2 1.44 MB inch floppy extinct.
iPhone – Because while my current intelligence remains at the average level, my perceived intelligence (thanks to the iPhone) shoots through the roof…
Lydia Fazzio, Contributor
iRiver MP3 Player – Helped me forget a bad relationship
Sony Ericsson T610 – I changed the cracked screen myself by ordering parts from Thailand and felt so empowered.The phone died a few weeks later.
Palm Treo 680 – Oh how I miss the todo list on that thing- helped me survive first few years in New York.
Polar F6 watch – Free with my gym membership.
Sony Reader Touch – Had it 2 weeks before sending it to Gazelle.com- impulse buy for my birthday- got a eee pc instead 
Had SPRINT as my mobile carrier in 2000 when I first moved to NYC
ASUS Netbook 1008HA – Birthday gift to myself and first time I ever created a dual-boot machine.
Sylvania “cheapo” DVD player from Radio Shack – at 29.99, we could not say no.
Tweezerman Nose hair clipper – Uh… not for me..really.
Ali Heriyanto, Editor of Chip Chick & Chip Chicklets
Kazaa, Morpheus, WinMx, Napster, Limewire – Do I really need to explain?
Motorola V60 – Used it till it literally fell apart into pieces in my hands. I never had the same phone that long (which was only a year) nor did I get a Motorola ever again for years.
Nokia 8810 – Spent $1000 dollars on this phone which also included a velor pouch and had to use it to wipe the damn phone every minute because of how greasy it got. Ended up on eBay very quickly.
Pentium 4/AMD Athlon – Let the chip wars begin.
Primera CD Printer – A heaven sent machine that printed directly onto printable CD’s and I never had to align an adhesive CD label again!
Rio Nitrus – First real MP3 player I had.
APEX Modded DVD/DVD-R/DVD-RW/CD-R/CD-RW Standalone Player – I could play a pancake in this machine and it would work.
Sony Ericcson T68 – My first color cellphone.
Fujitsu Lifebook Laptop – I remember pounding on the doors of the Fujitsu Canadian headquarters in Toronto begging them to open up so that they could fix my dying laptop. Truly this was a vacation to remember….
Omnipoint, voicestream, and Jamie Lee Curtis – What were the previous identities of T-Mobile and I’m a lifer going on 8 years with them.
Palm VIIx – It had wireless, I could check my eBay auctions, and email. It was the best and most advanced device of its time. It even went with me on my first trip to Las Vegas.
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