The iconic HBO Original Series Sex and the City just celebrated its 25th anniversary–and fans all over the world haven’t gotten enough of Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), Charlotte (Kristin Davis), and Samantha (Kim Cattrall). We’ve fawned over their dating lives, fashion, and even their friendships with each other, as four women navigating life in their thirties in New York City.
Courtesy of HBO Go
And because we’re a tech zine, we couldn’t help but wonder…which iconic devices did the show’s heroines use throughout the series? We’re here to give you a lowdown on the tech highlighted during the show’s six-season run, and what their modern counterparts are.
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Apple Powerbook G3
Carrie was a columnist for the New York Star throughout the series. Her workhorse of choice was a Powerbook G3, an early iteration of the Apple Macbook. In one episode, Carrie’s laptop suddenly breaks down in the middle of writing—and it’s even more harrowing when we all discover that none of her files were backed up.
The Powerbook G3 series was first made available in November 1997 and had a PowerPC G3 CPU with speeds ranging from 233-500 MHz. When it was introduced, it was marketed as “the fastest notebook computer available.” Its initial iteration, the ‘Kanga’, had 32MB of RAM soldered to its motherboard. The laptops in the series were also a whopping 7.6 lbs–a far cry from the latest 15-inch Macbook Air.
Zip drives
When Carrie’s G3 crashed, her then-boyfriend Aidan Shaw (John Corbett) bought her a new Macbook and an external Zip drive so that she could back up her files moving forward.
Zip drives were introduced in 1994 by Iomega, a manufacturer of data storage products. They were removable floppy disk drives that came in either 100, 250, or 750 MB, with a transfer rate of 1.4 MB per second. Of course, today’s disk drives can carry giga- and even terabytes of data and process them much faster, too!
PalmPilots
Over breakfast, Miranda shows her girlfriends her new PalmPilot, wanting to change the subject from talking about men. Of course, her attempts run futile.
The PalmPilot, launched in 1996, was said to be “the first wildly popular handheld computer”--eventually paving the way for the smartphones we use today. PalmPilots allowed users to track their calendars, task lists, and contacts at their fingertips. Later versions allowed for email connectivity and the option to sync the device to their laptops or desktop computers. Because it was the ultimate productivity tool at the time, it was the perfect device for a powerhouse career woman like Miranda (hilariously, she also has tech woes of her own in And Just Like That…).
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