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
The US government recently tightened its restrictions on chip exports in an effort to make it more difficult for China to access artificial hardware and services, all in the interest of national security. However, the restrictions could prove "insignificant" in the short term, and even worse, could actually boost...
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It doesn't matter if your gaming platform of choice is a PC or a dedicated console. Either way, storage matters, as games are not exactly shrinking in size. Fortunately, it's pretty easy to upgrade the storage on your PC or console, and especially the PlayStation 5 when it comes to the latter, which lets you install...
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For a long time, the two main reasons to skip over OLED were prohibitively high prices and the risk of permanent image retention, otherwise known as burn-in. Over the past several years, however, TV makers and their retail partners have made strides to address both concerns—yes, the risk of burn-in still exists, but...
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Who doesn't like a free performance uplift? That's one of the ideas behind upscaling technologies, which render games at a lower, less demanding resolution and then upscales them. Intel's Xe Super Sampling (XeSS) is one such solution, and an upcoming version 1.3 update promises to boost performance even further...
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Before I even get started discussing the specs of Razer's upgraded Blade 18 gaming laptop, I implore everyone to clench their fingers and offer a fist-bump to Razer for helping to keep big and bad notebooks in style. Now take that same fist and punch your wallet or purse so it can get used to the pummeling that will...
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Contrary to what some may think, hackers can have scruples and, in some cases, honorable intentions—it's kind of the whole idea behind white hat hacking and events like Pwn2Own. But then there are the kind who wouldn't think twice about breaching a cancer center and swipe personal details of hundreds of thousands of...
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Is there anything worse than piecing together your PC build, pressing the power button, and then...nothing happens? Well yes, there are a myriad of things worse than a non-booting PC. But it's still highly frustrating, and also potentially stressful, especially if the root cause isn't immediately obvious. It's also...
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It's been over 60 years since The Jetsons introduced us to Rosey the Robot, a mechanical and artificially intelligent housekeeper on wheels. Now several decades later, full-fledged robot maids are still not a thing, but that could change if Apple decides that in-home robots are the "next big thing" that it's seeking...
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For a long while, gaming displays were mostly barren of OLED panels, but that's beginning to change. While still not as pervasive as LCD, we're seeing OLED announcements with some frequency these days, the latest of which comes from ViewSonic—its first OLED gaming monitor, the XG272-2K-OLED, just made its debut and is...
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As of right now, the fastest PCI Express protocol available on consumer motherboards is PCI Express 5.0, which offers up to 128GB/s of bi-directional x16 bandwidth. While certainly fast, PCI Express 7.0 blows the bandwidth roof off the building with a huge 4X increase to 512GB/s, with PCI-SIG releasing a full draft of...
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Not all processor launches are accompanied by tons of fanfare. The latest example of this is the addition of four Ryzen 7000 series mobile chip additions to AMD's product stack, none of which garnered a press release, blog post, or announcement of any kind. And interestingly, it really amounts to two new models, with...
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Artificial intelligence chatbots are coming to all the things, it seems, and evidently that includes your Xbox game console. While nothing has been announced, Microsoft revealed that it is indeed in the process of testing an AI chatbot for Xbox game consoles, with the focus so far on supporting gamers in a number of...
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Today is a day to be skeptical of everyone and everything (except HotHardware, of course!). It's also one of the most challenging days for technology journalists, as navigating legitimate news from April Fools' Day gags can sometimes be rather tricky. That said, we've rounded up some excellent gaming monitor bargains...
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AT&T is in the process of alerting millions of current and former account holders of an alarming data leak that exposed sensitive details to the dark web, including social security numbers. An initial investigation suggests that the leaked data set is from 2019 or earlier, and contains "personal information"...
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Easter is nearly upon us, but before you find yourself in a ham and chocolate induced coma, take a moment to browse Best Buy's current crop of discounts. You'll find everything from laptops to headphones (and everything in between) marked down. We've taken the liberty of curating some of the better deals, starting...
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Conversing with an AI-powered chatbot or trying to beat it at chess can be fun and all, but researchers, scientists, and engineers have much bigger aspirations for artificial intelligence. You know, like brewing the perfect beer, as it turns out. Before anyone scoffs, brewing beer is serious business, and also a good challenge for AI training.
Humans
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Vizio is expanding its refreshed 2024 smart TV lineup with a ginormous 86-inch 4K model that's set to retail for just $999 when it releases next month. The announcement comes just just weeks after Walmart said it had reached a deal to buy Vizio for around $2.3 billion and is being pitched as a "refreshed brand...
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It's not just fast CPUs and graphics cards that can benefit from beefy coolers, so too can the latest crop of solid state drives (SSDs) that shuttle data through the PCI Express 5.0 bus. That being the case, we suspect we'll see more drives emerge with towering coolers like the one MSI has plopped on its Spatium M580...
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It hasn't been a full two months since Apple's Vision Pro headset released to retail, but that's apparently enough time for it to go on sale. Sorta, kinda, that is—Apple is not offering the Vision Pro for a discount (not yet, anyway), but the folks at Woot, which is owned by Amazon, are offering up Apple's high-tech...
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In a recent 10-K filing with the the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), games retailer GameStop said it was putting in place "initiatives to reduce headcount" as part of a "strategic plan to achieve profitability." Separately, GameStop reported $1.79 billion in fourth quarter revenue for its fiscal 2023...
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Apple is making preparations for its annual Worldwide Developer Conference, otherwise known as WWDC, which will run several days in June—it gets underway on Monday, June 10 and commences through Thursday, June 14, 2024 at Apple Park in Cupertino, California. It's an in-person event, though Apple will also host a livestream that anyone can
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CyberPowerPC is refreshing its Tracer gaming laptop line with its upgraded Tracer VIII series, and once again buyers can optionally choose to pick up a detachable liquid cooling setup to keep temps at bay. It won't set you back a ton of cash, either, though buyers will have to decide if the added cooling is worth the...
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