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
Just because you're the largest, most dominant chip maker in the world doesn't mean you can't cut loose and have a little fun in every once awhile. And hey, nobody ever accused Intel of not having a sense of humor. The Santa Clara chip maker also isn't immune to the occasional Internet craze, the latest being the "Gangnam Style" video that's...
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Apple and PC doomsayers like to talk an awful lot about the so-called post-PC era, but you know what? Desktops are far from dead, "they've just been boring," claims the developers of the Xi3 Modular Computer project. They want to change the way computers are built, serviced, and upgraded, but first they need to raise...
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It would appear that North Korea wants a piece of the Android tablet action and has developed an open-source slate of its own. Based on pictures floating around in the press, North Korea's Android tablet is well beyond the early stages and, if not a finished product, looks to be a very advanced prototype. A picture was taken of the country's...
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Tim Cook is coming into his own as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Apple. After a little more than a year at the helm, he's managed to differentiate himself in a subtle, yet meaningful way from Steve Jobs, and he did it simply by apologizing for the situation with Maps in iOS 6. We'll give you a moment to pick your jaw up off the floor....
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Sony and Olympus are kicking off the weekend by entering into a "business alliance agreement" and a "capital alliance agreement," which are essentially fancy ways of announcing a big time investment of one into the other. In this case, Sony is tossing about $645 million at Olympus in order to become the company's largest shareholder. After...
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It's nigh impossible to stay one step ahead in the smartphone race, because just as soon as you pick up a handset, a successor inevitably pokes its head into view. That's the case for HTC One X owners, who should probably stop reading right now. For everyone else, be advised that HTC's faster clocked One X+ isn't too...
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Tread carefully on the Internet, surf ninja. That's always sound advice, but it's especially important now to be extra cautious, particularly if you use Java. Researchers at Security Explorations discovered a zero-day exploit in multiple versions of Java that could affect over a billion PCs around the globe. Technical details of the exploit...
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In a roundabout sort of way, Facebook tattled on itself earlier in the summer when, in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), it fessed up to the fact that nearly 9 percent of the social networking site's accounts are fake, bogus, the unreal McCoy. Or, as Facebook labeled them, "undesirable" or "false" accounts, which...
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The neat thing about the fast pace of technology is that yesterday's high-end hardware eventually (and usually pretty quickly) trickles down into budget territory, a point Qualcomm's new Snapdragon S4 Play processors underscore. New to the Snapdragon S4 Play lineup are a pair of quad-core chips for entry-level...
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One of the problems with being a multi-platform gamer that enjoys gaming on a PC just as much as on an Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 console is that it gets mighty expensive stocking up on separate peripherals for each one. Can't we all just get along? Sennheiser thinks so, and to prove it, the company released its first pair of multi-platform...
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Assuming no more delays, you don't have long to wait until Ubisoft releases Far Cry 3 to PC, which is slated to ship December 4 in North America and November 29 in Europe. That gives you plenty of time to spruce up your system and make sure it meets the minimum or recommended hardware requirements that Ubisoft...
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Do you think that Intel, the world's largest chip maker, might have somewhat of a vested interest in Windows? You better believe it, and so it's pretty scary that Intel's Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Paul Otellini, isn't feeling the vibe from Windows 8. As far as Otellini is reportedly concerned, Windows 8 is not a...
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For a company that's worth over $650 billion, you would think Apple would learn how to better communicate with its customers. Perhaps that's the luxury of being in Apple's position -- as long as people keep buying the company's products, it needn't make excuses for design flaws. Remember the antenna issue that plagued...
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Ever since Amazon launched its Kindle Fire line, Barnes & Noble's Nook devices have been almost an afterthought, at least in terms of media coverage. Not anymore. Barnes & Noble today gave its Nook line a much needed update, and may have rendered the upcoming Kindle Fire HD obsolete in the process. Let's have...
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It's no secret there's no love lost between Apple and Samsung. The former sued the latter for patent infringement and recently won a billion dollar verdict, and Samsung, which will undoubtedly appeal, has been lobbing humor grenades at its foe, making fun of Apple customers in an ad spot for the Galaxy S III. And yet...
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You know Steve Wozniak as the oft-outspoken American programmer who co-founded Apple and invented the Apple I and and Apple II systems, but if he gets his way, you'll soon know him as a bona fide Australian citizen. One of the reasons why Woz finds taking up permanent residence in Australia so appealing is because the...
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Apparently Nintendo's upcoming Wii U game console isn't powered by a Power 7 processor after all, as was previously believed to be the case. IBM took to Twitter to clarify that fact, while offering a somewhat vague clue as to what hardware the Wii U will be running. "Wii U chip clarification: It's a 'Power-based microprocessor,'" @IBMWatson...
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An Apple a day is supposed to keep the doctor away, but with the latest release of iOS -- version 6 -- Apple has managed to kick Google Maps to the curb, too. The decision to ditch Google Maps in favor of its own mapping service based on TomTom's data hasn't been particularly well received by users, some of which have...
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Perhaps in an attempt to inject some sanity into the smartphone wars, Nokia today unveiled the Asha 308 and 309, the latest additions to the Asha Touch family that allow its users to hop on the web and perform other smart tasks without breaking the bank. The statement Asha phone owners make is, 'I don't care about the...
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The number of brick-and-mortar electronics shops available to do-it-yourself (DIY) system builders and consumer electronics (CE) junkies has fallen dramatically in the past several years. First it was Good Guys that fell by the wayside in 2005, then CompUSA that sunk itself into financial trouble a year later before being bought out by Systemax,...
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As we discovered during our formal review of the iPhone 5, Apple's newest smartphone isn't just fast, it pretty much smokes the top Android devices in benchmarks. Much to the approval of Apple, the iPhone 5 is also lighting up the sales chart, a point the Cupertino company is all too happy to gloat about. According to...
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Asus today lifted the curtain on its F2A85 Series of motherboards built around AMD's new A85X chipset and FM2 socket. The boards are designed and optimized for the Sunnyvale chip designer's second generation "Trinity" Accelerated Processing Units (APUs), which are expected to launch next month. One of the things Asus...
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