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
From a hardware standpoint, Google's $199 Nexus 7 tablet is viewed as a win compared to Amazon's Kindle Fire device, which lacks some of the amenities found on the Asus-built slate. But one area where the Nexus 7 doesn't trump the Kindle Fire is in regards to a rear-facing camera. Neither device has one, and in both...
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There are plenty of economic uncertainties to go around in the global market, but despite it all, International Data Corporation believes the demand remains strong for semiconductors, particularly those used in smartphones, media tablets, and automotive electronics. By the time 2012 comes to a close, IDC predicts...
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Watch out Verizon, Comcast is gunning for your ultra high-speed Internet customers. In response to Verizon's Quantum FiOS service, which tops out at 305Mbps downstream / 65Mbps upstream for $205 per month, Comcast is said to be readying a new 305Mbps downstream service tier, though a few important questions remain...
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Street cred isn't easy to come by on your own, but sometimes it can be bought. Just ask Seagate, which is rumored to be interested in buying out OCZ, an established player in the enthusiast solid state drive (SSD) market. As the story goes, Seagate is trying to make up for lost time from being late to the SSD party...
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Diablo III proved deadly for an 18-year-old gamer who died at an Internet cafe in Taiwan after playing the hack-and-slash title for 40 straight hours without taking a break. Local media reports he didn't eat for nearly two days until he ultimately collapsed and died. Police are currently investigating the official cause of death with the help...
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Business is good for Verizon Wireless (VZW). Real good. For the second consecutive quarter, Big Red posted double-digit percentage growth in year-over-year earnings, which went up 12.3 percent. Verizon's Wireless division generated record-high margins, thanks in part to millions of smartphone sales. CFO Fran Shammo...
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YouTube announced a new face blurring feature that makes it easy for video uploaders to obscure faces when a level of privacy is needed. It's a bold step forward for YouTube, which is the first video sharing site to offer such a feature. In fact, no consumer hardware manufacturer currently offers a face blurring...
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We don't tend to think of solid state drives as being overly susceptible to the dangers of heat, but then again, we're not running a toasty server farm or bombarding our SSDs with constant simulation applications. For those who do have a server farm to run, or are otherwise worried about longevity, Super Talent just...
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In this day and age of instant gratification, it can be tough to sit back and wait, but that's exactly what you have to do if you're holding out for a 64GB Galaxy S III smartphone from Samsung. The good news is that the 64GB model hasn't been cancelled, even though there have been reports of some overseas retailers nixing orders. "The 64GB...
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Big Red (Verizon Wireless) introduced the world to shared data plans, and now AT&T is jumping on that bandwagon by introducing similar plans of its own. Available in late August, these new shared wireless data plans translate into "more options in choosing the plan that's right" for you, as AT&T spins it, but...
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Call Google+ a ghost town if you wish, but in terms of customer satisfaction, it's standing head and shoulders above Facebook, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) E-Business Report released on Tuesday. The report highlights customer happiness on a scale of 1-100, and Facebook, which was...
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If you're serious about storage chores, there's really no choice but to get NASty with your setup. Luckily for you, there are more options than ever (several of which we'll be examining in detail in an upcoming roundup -- stay tuned!), and that means NAS vendors have to find ways to differentiate themselves so as to...
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Mmm, Steam'd penguins. Sounds delightful, doesn't it? Good news, Linux fans -- the developers at Valve are hard at work cooking up a version of the Steam game platform to serve up to the open-source community, along with a side dish of the Source game engine (and Left 4 Dead 2 specifically), both of which it plans to...
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Perhaps you've heard the rumor that Apple is getting ready to launch its new iPhone device on August 7th (or thereabouts depending on which rumor mill you happened to walk by). No? Let us clue you in on the latest chatter. A website is claiming to have "exclusively" learned via a "reliable industry source" that Apple...
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Something's brewing over at HTC, and if early benchmarks are any indication, it's going to knock your socks off when it debuts. Specifically, it appears HTC is prepping a new flagship smartphone, one that will sport a large touchscreen with a 1794x1080 resolution and a 1.5GHz processor nestled into a performance oriented chipset. Details of...
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When Apple unveiled its Mac OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) operating system back in June, the Cupertino outfit said it would be available in July from the Mac App Store, but refrained from offering up a specific release date. With barely two weeks left in the month, Apple is running out of time to make good on that...
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The path to Microsoft's Windows 7.8 platform just got a little bit cheaper and is paved with a price cut. That's because Nokia on Sunday announced that it cut the price of its Lumia 900 smartphone in half, which is now selling for just $50 at AT&T in the U.S., with a two-year service agreement, of course. "This...
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Google spent considerable time talking about its Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) update during its Google I/O conference a few weeks ago, but only now has the sultan of search gotten around to posting a full changelog for the latest and greatest version of its open-source mobile operating system. The newly posted changelog...
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Comic-Con isn't just a place to see a bunch of middle-aged men wandering around in costumes. For Microsoft, this year's Comic-Con proved the perfect spot to reveal its upcoming Xbox 360 Limited Edition Halo 4 console bundle, which marks the return of the Master Chief and is arguably the best looking Xbox 360 console...
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Rumor has it Microsoft will unveil to the world its Office 2013 (codenamed Office 15) next-generation productivity suite on Monday, July 16. In the meantime, the Redmond software giant has created a new blog called 'Office Next' that's being virtually penned by PJ Hough, Corporate Vice President of Program Management...
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Security firm Symantec is busy cleaning up a bit of egg on its face after pushing out a signature update that decided not to play nice with some Windows XP machines. Symantec disclosed the problem on its website, saying that the SNAFU only affected machines running a combination of Windows XP, the latest version of...
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The past year has seen solid state drives (SSDs) grow bigger in capacity, run faster than ever, and come down in price, with many high-end drives now selling for around $1 per gigabyte, and sometimes less. Helping to spark this bang-for-buck renaissance is the fact that everyone and their uncle is kicking out SSDs...
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