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
There was a massive public uproar on the Internet a month ago when Instagram tried changing its Terms of Service (ToS) agreement so that it could sell your pictures for profit. Following the backlash, Instagram tried to say it was a big misunderstanding over standard legalese, and then vowed to change the wording to appease the masses. It...
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In what's sure to bring tears to tens of people, Halo 2's PC multiplayer servers are permanently going dark next month. 343 Industries made the decision to pull the plug when it noticed that usage was consistently peaking at around just 20 player or less. "We’re sad to report that the service end-date for Halo 2...
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Now that the Consumer Electronics Show is over and done with, it's time to start looking forward to Mobile World Congress (MWC), the mobile industry's largest exhibition. It will be there that Samsung unveils its Galaxy Note 8.0 tablet. Two of them, actually -- one with Wi-Fi only and the other with both Wi-Fi and 3G...
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Apple's Siri voice assistant software for iOS devices is an evolving persona, one that creates the illusion of having a real-life secretary at your beck and call. She's able to find restaurants, set reminders, jot down notes, and plenty more, and occasionally gets sassy. It's all very charming, though there remains plenty of room for improvement....
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Samsung has a treat for Galaxy Note 10.1 and Galaxy Tab 2 owners heading into the weekend. It's Jelly Bean (Android 4.1), now available for both devices as an over-the-air (OTA) update or as a manual download/install through the mobile device maker's free Kies software. No matter how you install it, the long-awaited...
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The Consumer Electronics Show is over, but the product announcements keep rolling in. Among them is Corsair's introduction of a pair of big and burly Hydro Series liquid CPU coolers, the dual-fan H110 and single-fan H90, both with spacious radiators. "Many PC enthusiasts choose liquid cooling for its extreme cooling...
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John Sculley, an American businessman who once served as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Apple, has some advice for his former employer. The way Sculley sees it, Apple needs to "dramatically rethink" things and forge ahead with a low-cost iPhone model for emerging markets. "Apple needs to adapt to a very different world," Sculley told Bloomberg...
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For years, brick-and-mortar retailers have been crowing about the unfair advantage Amazon has in the retail space in territories where it doesn't have to collect sales tax, and now that the playing field is starting to level, their sales are going up. Best Buy, for example, noted that holiday online sales increased in three states where Amazon...
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Stop us if you've heard this one before: AT&T is looking to merge with a telecom...what's that, you have heard this one? Well this time it's different. AT&T isn't looking to make another run at T-Mobile, the U.S. subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, and presumably the wireless carrier learned its lesson about offering massive breakup fees...
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Boy, it must be nice to live like a 1 percenter (speaking about the wealthy, not the outlaw motorcycle club), but even the filthy rich practice prudence every once in awhile. And when it comes to LG Electronics' ginormous 84-inch Ultra HD 4K television, I can share with you 22,000 reasons why not to buy it. Yes, the TV that's wider than a...
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Two great tastes that go great together are Jelly Bean (Android 4.1.x) and Samsung's Galaxy S III, and it just so happens that Jelly Bean is exactly what's on AT&T's over-the-air (OTA) menu. So go ahead Galaxy III owners and feast your phones on the OTA update, which is reportedly being rolled out today! Some of...
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At long last, AT&T is loosening its grip on Apple's FaceTime video conferencing technology over cellular connections. If you recall, FaceTime was limited to Wi-Fi when it was first debuted, and then in September 2012, AT&T said it would gradually roll out support on cellular to sort of test the waters. Now...
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Recovering Temple Run addicts who finally managed to stop playing the endless action game developed by Imangi Studios are going to feel like Michael Corleone did in Godfather III when he said, "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in." That is, unless you can resist Temple Run 2, which is already available in New Zealand and slated...
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George Lucas may have sold his Star Wars franchise to Disney a little too soon, missing out on an opportunity to release yet another re-mastered special edition with authentic looking hyperspace travel. That's right folks, we've all been misled by Hollywood (shocking, but true!); traveling through galaxies at warp...
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PC gamers are sometimes treated like second-class citizens (to put it delicately) compared to our console brethren, and if you're worried BioShock Infinite will be another one of those titles, Irrational Games wants to put your fears to rest. The developer posted an article detailing what PC gamers can expect from the upcoming title, as well...
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One of the grooviest gadgets to break cover at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas last week was Sony's Xperia Z smartphone. Armed with a tantalizing collection of components and features, and waterproof up to three feet, the Xperia Z is definitely on our radar. Might Sony also be readying an Xperia Z tablet? Twitter account @Xperia_info...
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Apple's share price is lingering around the $488 mark, down more than 30 percent from its 52-week high of $705.07 just prior to the iPhone 5 launch. Shares of Apple stock dropped to as low as $483.80 earlier this morning, and is on pace to the close the day below $500 per share, which would be the first time that's...
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After several setbacks and delays, the folks at Fedora have just released their newest Linux distro, Fedora 18, otherwise known by its code-name "Spherical Cow." One of the big new features in Fedora 18 is that it now supports UEFI Secure Boot by using bootloaders that have been signed with Microsoft certificates. In short, you should have...
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Like many memory makers, Mushkin is heavily focused on solid state drives (SSDs) these days, having previously launched its enterprise-friendly ProSpec SSD family at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas last week. Without skipping a beat, Mushkin today announced the U.S. availability of its capacious 480GB Atlas mSATA SSD. It's...
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China isn't just the most populated country in the world, it also boasts the most Internet users. That's not surprising since it's only logical for those two traits to go hand-in-hand, but the numbers are staggering nonetheless. For example, China's online population grew 10 percent last year, adding 51 million additional users. That brings...
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After looking at the sales figures for Surface RT, Microsoft may find itself haunted by the words of Acer chairman and CEO JT Wang. Back in August, Wang stated in an interview with The Financial Times that Microsoft should "think twice" about launching a tablet of its own, saying that hardware is "not something you are good at." In our own...
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The way Gartner sees it, we're all going to be living in single-PC homes in the not-too-distant future. Mom, pop, little Billy and his sister Janet won't have their own PCs anymore, and will instead share a single primary PC in the household for heavy lifting, and use a tablet for content consumption chores, like surfing the web and playing...
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