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
Don't kick yourself if you missed out on the barrage of Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals, because let's face it, singular day events are a mirage. We're in the middle of an entire holiday season of sales. To prove it, one of the best gaming desktop PC deals around is a suddenly affordable MSI machine that's the...
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Ugly holiday sweaters have become a clothing trend over the past decade, and Microsoft has been getting into the oddball holiday spirit for the last several years with its own funky line of themed-attired. Its past ugly sweater offerings have included designs based on the Windows logo, MS Paint, Clippy, Minesweeper...
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Is a sluggish internet connection slowing you down and putting you in a bad mood for the holiday? If you've gone through the usual troubleshooting steps and determined that your crusty-old wireless router is to blame, then cheer up because there are a bunch of deals on fast models to turn that 'Bah humbug!' into Buddy...
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The holiday season is upon us, which means a barrage of sales on services and products as people find themselves in the gift-giving mood. It's also a time for feasting, and not just on turkey and ham—like nasty little cockroaches and termites, scammers come out of the woodwork during the holiday season in hopes of...
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If you're an avid reader, you should strongly consider investing in an e-reader. I know, I know—we all love the feel (and sometimes smell) of a physical book, and up until I bought a Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition last year, I was firmly in the dead tree camp too. Not anymore. Among other benefits, e-readers make...
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We live in a world where streaming rules the day, but if you like the comfort of owning a movie or TV show on physical media, than Blu-ray is still the way to go. Now is a great time to flesh out your collection (or start one) too, because Cyber Monday discounts abound on a plethora of Blu-ray flicks and shows...
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Well, what's officially known as Black Friday has come and gone but let's be real, we're in the midst of an entire holiday season of deals. That said, retailers have pivoted to pushing Cyber Monday discounts. You don't have to wait until Monday, though, as they're already in effect. As such, we've rounded up a bunch...
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Hey, have you gotten the memo—Black Friday deals are live! Of course you have because you can't hardly visit a website without being hammered over the head with Black Friday bargains. That includes us (hey, we gotta eat too!). But before you mentally check out of the sales festivities, do yourself a solid and check...
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The last thing you want to do with your swank gaming PC is to saddle it with second-rate peripherals. Sorry, but that generic two-button mouse that was a blue-light special at K-Mart is not going to cut it for competitive gaming. What will cut it, however, are any of several purpose-built gaming mice that are on sale...
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'Tis the season to be jolly about Black Friday discounts on pretty much everyt product category that exists. Naturally, not all deals are created equal. One that certainly stands out, however, is a big saving on Sony's PlayStation 5 game console. With a little bit of luck and legwork, you can snag one with a disc...
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Like a band of seductive sea nymphs tempting sailors to change course, retailers are luring gamers with Black Friday discounts on games for every major platform. Only instead of using alluring voices to ultimately steer anyone to a rocky demise, retailers are singing the song of savings to prevent gamers from paying...
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One of the best trends in tech over the past several years is big screen TVs getting increasingly bigger and less expensive. Underscoring that fact like an emphatic dunk at the end of a basketball game that's a blowout is Hisense and its retail partners unloading its absolutely monstrous 100-inch U8K television for...
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It's only fitting that one of the big discounts for Black Friday applies to Samsung's biggest gaming monitor, an absolutely monstrous 49-inch display with drool-worthy specs. Don't worry if you don't have the space or desire for such a dominating display, though, because we've rounded up a bunch of Black Friday...
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NVIDIA has found its golden goose in AI chip design, which contributed heavily to another massive spike in revenue during the company's third quarter of fiscal 2024—it tripled year-over-year to $18.12 billion. That's also a sizable 34% gain from the previous quarter and a new quarterly revenue record, and it led to a...
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TeamGroup's growing family of high-speed solid state drives (SSDs) just got a bit bigger today with the launch of four new models, including the T-Force G70 Pro, T-Force G70, T-Force G50 Pro, and T-Force G50. All four drive families share PCI Express 4.0 DNA and use an Innogrit controller. What separates them...
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Have you seen how much space some AAA games take up these days? There are several that approach and even exceed 100GB install sizes (Starfield takes up around 140GB), and that's before any DLC and/or mods—ARK: Survival Evolved, for example, can tip the storage scale at 400GB. Fortunately, Black Friday deals on storage...
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So you bought an Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S and now friends and family members are clamoring for some local multiplayer action, is that it? You're going to need another controller. It's almost criminal that console makers typically only bundle in a single controller, but that's the way it goes. Fortunately, Black...
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You probably don't need an official list to tell you that "123456" is an incredibly weak password (unless you're a CEO, apparently), or that extending it out to "12345678" or even "123456789" are nearly as anemic when it comes to account security. Nevertheless, the folks at NordPass have published an annual list of...
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Back in the old days, towering desktop PCs the size of Mount Olympus were commonplace. Fast forward to modern times, however, and advances in technology have allowed manufactures to pack increasing amounts of firepower into pint-sized PCs. Enter the mini PC movement. To that end, we've secured some additional savings...
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If you own a Nintendo Switch console, now is a great time to build up your games library. Black Friday deals are out in full force at Amazon with deep discounts on a bevy of titles, with markdowns ranging from 25% off all the way up to 75% off. And if you don't own a Switch console, there's a deal to be had there too...
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Is there anything worse than a porch pirate? Well yes (murderers, deadly diseases, loses the last leg on what would have otherwise been a lucrative parlay bet), but if it were up to us, there would be an additional circle of hell in Dante's Inferno for these inconsiderate and opportunistic thieves. Now that the Black...
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If you've been waiting for the right moment to dip your toes in cloud game streaming, now is the time. Why is that? NVIDIA is joining the Black Friday frenzy that has already begun by offering a pretty sweet PC gaming bundle offer—if you sign up for six months of NVIDIA's GeForce NOW Ultimate tier, you'll also receive...
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