Hot Tech Toys from the Past: Geek Chic from the '90s

By Diann Daniel

What a difference a decade makes: Can you believe you used this technology just 10 years ago, then unwound with a game of Doom? Join our look back at your first PDA love, not-so-portable music and the day long before Mac could ridicule PC.

Whether you're 23 or 53, you might remember that life was a bit different in 1998. Every man, woman and child had yet to be outfitted with a cell phone and a high-bandwidth Internet connection, and bulky tech was the norm. VC-backed startups were flush with cash and dotcom workers dreamed of big-time dollar signs at the end of their long work days. Newspapers hadn't yet been overthrown by online news sites, and their headlines shouted about a different Clinton (and his trysts with an intern). And yes, we checked: Gas really cost less than $1.25 a gallon.

A decade later, you can't imagine life without your BlackBerry. And some tech toys of the '90s seem almost primitive.

Have you got 10-year nostalgia? Take a look at our time trip, then click here to add your own thoughts on the biggest technology differences between the decades.

When Digital Camera Met Floppy

Sexy and sleek it was not: But the Sony Mavica MVC-FD5, released in 1997, broke ground in its time. In this day before memory cards, it was the first digital camera that enabled users to store and share photos on a then-ubiquitous platform—the 3.5-inch floppy disk. The camera set buyers back $599 for an image resolution of 0.3 megapixels (or 640 pixels by 480 pixels). You could pack a whopping eight pictures at that resolution on a floppy. Today, $599 will get you a swanky Leica D-LUX 3, with a 10-megapixel image resolution.

Image credit: Sony Corporation

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