Paul Lilly
Paul is a seasoned geek who was first seduced into the world of computers and technology by the Commodore 64, and through the years he’s courted a number of OSes and platforms from DOS on up to the latest version of Windows. Having joined the HotHardware team in 2011, Paul is now a mainstay of the site covering the news beat and reviews, and resident wiseguy who keeps the mood light. He’s also an experienced freelance technology writer whose work has appeared in a number of online and print publications.
Opinions and content posted by HotHardware contributors are their own.
Recent posts
After a freeze in hiring was instituted in February, Foxconn (Hon Hai Precision) has reportedly begun expanding its workforce at a factory in Zhengzhou, China. It's believed Foxconn is bringing in new employees to fulfill the inevitable demand for Apple's next iPhone, rumors of which have been swirling for several months now. Citing a "person...
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It was easy to kick BlackBerry when it was down, but now that it's risen from the ashes of Research In Motion (RIM) with a new name, a new flagship phone, and a new outlook on its mobile life, the spunky Canadian company is showing that it isn't afraid to engage in some verbal fisticuffs when necessary. Now apparently...
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Some Xbox 360 gamers who tried to sign into Xbox Live over the weekend may have run into difficulties doing so. That's because the service was down for a period of time, and it couldn't have come at a worse time for a couple of reasons, especially for Call of Duty: Black Ops II players. Activision's been awarding...
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There's still a large audience for games with a high level of difficulty. Such would explain why Dark Souls, the spiritual successor to Demon's Souls and one heck of a tough game, has sold 2.36 million copies to date, according to data released by developer From Entertainment. The includes 375,000 sales in Japan on...
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It's been a long and often times tumultuous road to the iPhone for T-Mobile, the fourth largest carrier in the U.S. that was nearly absorbed by AT&T a little over a year ago. T-Mobile yesterday starting selling iPhone 5 devices, and in doing so, it became the last of the major wireless carriers to offer Apple's...
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We're not trying to pick on Verizon Wireless today (really, we're not), but we can't help it if the wireless carrier insists on putting targets on its back. The latest bit of news from Big Red is that it's getting rid of early upgrade eligibility and requiring that its subscribers ride out the entire length of their...
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Desktops and data centers are two very different beasts, and what's true of one might not be true of the other. For example, even though solid state drive (SSD) pricing has fallen dramatically in past year, it's still cheaper to equip a desktop or laptop system with a mechanical hard disk drive (HDD). The same isn't...
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No need to adjust your PC monitor or tablet display (or whatever you're viewing this one), the picture you see below is indeed a T-Mobile store, and yes, that's a line extending out and wrapping around the building. That's quite the unusual sight, though there are reports of lines forming at several T-Mobile retail stores today. The reason,...
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It's usually a good idea to install Windows updates as they become available every Patch Tuesday so you can stay one step ahead of the bad guys. Unfortunately, things can wrong every once in awhile, as they did with the most recent batch of updates. After installing the patches, some users complained of system instabilities and blue screen...
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Verizon Wireless rolled out a couple of new basic pre-paid plans for chatter bugs on a budget, and included in both tiers is unlimited data. The first is a $35 plan that buys you 500 monthly minutes of talk time and unlimited text and data. If you go over the allotted minutes, you're charged 25 cents for each one thereafter. Or you can plan...
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If your moral compass doesn't dissuade you from pirating games, maybe the prevalence of malware will. According to the latest research from AVG, game hacks and cracks almost always contain malicious code, as in more than 90 percent of the time, depending on where the downloads originate. In other words, for every 10 times you download a keygen...
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Well, it's official. Florida governor Rick Scott signed into legislation the "Internet Cafe Ban," which effectively closed down around 1,000 such establishments in the state. The ban went into effect immediately, though some cafes shut their doors a week ago under the assumption that the ban would go through. A report in Florida Today paints...
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PC sales are slumping in a big way and there's plenty of blame to go around. Before get into that, let's have a look at how bad things really are. According to new data released by the International Data Corporation (IDC), global PC shipments totaled just 76.3 million units in the first quarter of 2013, down nearly 14...
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Samsung this week announced that it has begun mass producing a 128-gigabit (Gb), 3-bit multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash memory chip using a 10nm-class process technology, which equates to somewhere between 10nm and 20nm. These chips will lead to high-density memory solutions such as embedded NAND storage and solid...
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It's tough to ignore the demand that exists for tablets in the 7-inch category, regardless of whether they're being scooped up for their size and portability, or because they typically cost significantly less than larger slates. Even Apple decided to jump into the category with its iPad mini. Will Microsoft be next? It appears that way. Citing...
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Mozilla today announced several changes to its executive leadership team, including a changing of the guard at the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) position. Current CEO Gary Kovacs, "having accomplished the goals and objectives he and the team set out to achieve," will step down later this year, however he will continue to serve on Mozilla's...
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SimCity is headed to the big Apple, not to be confused with the Big Apple (New York City). We're talking about the Mac platform, with availability scheduled for June 11, 2013, Electronic Arts (EA) announced in a forum post today. For those who already own the PC version of SimCity, they'll receive the Mac version at...
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Yes, there really is a Kalamazoo, as shops in the Michigan city like to point out on touristy T-shirts (I should know, I live in the Kalamazoo area). And yes, AT&T's 4G LTE service is now available in Kalamazoo, offering residents mobile Internet speeds up to 10 times faster than 3G. It's one of several cities in...
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Continuing with its "un-carrier" theme, T-Mobile on Wednesday announced a special trade-in offer that will make it possible for customers to pick up an iPhone 5 without a down payment. Anyone with an iPhone 4 or 4S can bring in their device and trade up to an iPhone 5, and depending on the condition and trade-in value, they can also receive...
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PayPal seems like a natural fit for Smart TV platforms, so why haven't the two fully meshed until now? Good question, and though we don't have an answer, we can report that they've finally come together. LG couldn't be more proud, either, pointing out that it's the first to offer PayPal on its Smart TV software (though not the first to offer...
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If you've been waiting to score a deal on an Apple iMac system, now is your chance, provided you're not opposed to buying a refurbished model. Apple just filled its store with a handful of refurbished iMac models that are marked down anywhere from 15 percent to 20 percent, which translates into savings of up to $400...
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Thinking about picking up a Mac Pro? If you can hold your horses for a bit, you may ride off into the Mac OS X sunset with better hardware than what's available now. That's because Apple is rumored to be replacing its Mac Pro machines sometime later this month, though it's unclear exactly what the Cupertino outfit has in store. The rumor originates...
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