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
Listing likes and dislikes, favorite movies, and other similar traits is completely optional on Facebook. Disclaiming crimes of a sexual nature, however, is not for residents of Louisiana. A new law sponsored by Louisiana state rep. Jeff Thompson requires sex offenders and child predators to list their crimes on...
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If you've been waiting for Acer to make its Iconia Tab A700 tablet available to order, your wait is over, provided you're interested in the silver model. Both the black and silver models are up for order on Acer's website, though the silver SKU is showing as "In Stock" while the black model appears to have sold out, at least for the time being....
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Get ready to say your goodbyes to Office Starter 2010, because Microsoft is already starting to do so. The Redmond software maker has reportedly begun letting its OEM partners known that it's phasing out the feature-thin version of Office that they've been pre-loading on new PCs, which was originally designed to give users a taste of the Office...
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A leaked 56-page presentation spilled the details of Microsoft's upcoming Xbox 720 game console, but what's even more telling is how Redmond's legal team is handling the situation. The document first appeared on Scribd and sat there for all the world to flip through, right up until Covington & Burling LLP, a law firm that represents Microsoft...
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Futuremark today released a sexy 3DMark tech demo, giving viewers a glimpse of the upcoming 3DMark benchmark that has yet to receive a formal name (perhaps 3DMark 12? "New" 3DMark? 3DMark for Windows 8?) The trailer provides a preview of the DirectX test and "is a work-in-progress," Futuremark says, and as such it doesn't represent the final...
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People who work at Apple already get to refer to themselves as Geniuses ("What do I do for a living? I'm a Genius! How about you?"), and now they get the benefit of some sweet discounts on select Apple gear. It's part of an employee discount program Apple CEO Tim Cook promised back in January, and it's now in effect...
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Microsoft has a potentially awesome thing going with its newly unveiled Surface tablet. Could it be an iPad killer? And if not, could Surface reign supreme as the world's second most popular tablet, a rank currently held by Amazon's Kindle Fire device? The success of Surface will depend on a number of factors, one of them being price. Early...
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Social networking site LinkedIn reportedly faces a $5 million class action lawsuit over a recent security breach that compromised the passwords of millions of members. The suit was filed by Katie Szpyrka in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California. Szpyrka says LinkedIn "failed to properly...
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Surfing the Web unprotected is like running out into traffic and hoping you don't get hit. Chances are you'll end up a hood ornament. Google is doing its part to keep you safe from all the malicious Web traffic out there, and it's been five years since it announced its malware and phishing protection via the company's...
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Three months ago, Gartner was predicting that worldwide PC shipments would reach 368 million units by the end of the year (not including tablet PCs), and more than 400 million in 2013. That projection worked out to a 4.4 percent growth rate in 2012. And now? According to GeekWire, Gartner is lowering its projected growth rate to just 0.9 percent...
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If there's a universal truth among performance junkies, it's that records are meant to be broken. It doesn't matter if you're talking about the Olympics, racing the quarter-mile in a hotrod, or ripping through Futuremark's 3DMark Vantage benchmark at a breakneck pace, the latter of which overclocker J. Lin demonstrated using four HIS brand...
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Even though tablets are red hot right now, interest in that segment by LG Electronics has grown lukewarm. Going forward, LG will shift its focus away from tablets and concentrate on other mobile devices,perhaps taking another look at slates sometime down the line. LG told Bloomberg in an email that it has "decided to...
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At nearly $590 per share, you might be wondering how you can afford to purchase shares of Apple (AAPL), especially in this economy. But if you have money to invest, a better question to ask is how can you afford not to purchase Apple stock? That might sound absurd, but in a note to investors, Topeka Capital Market's Brian White reiterated...
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Well here's an exciting bit of news for the modding community. Famed Android modder Steve "Cyanogen" Kondik has made available a build of his aftermarket CyanogenMod firmware for Samsung's Galaxy S III smartphone, which has yet to ship in the United States. How so? For starters, the Galaxy S III has been available in...
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Apple recently upgraded its MacBook Pro line with new models that boast a Retina Display, and while that's neat and all, woe is the user who's in need of an out-of-warranty repair. For one, as we recently reported, a teardown analysis by iFixIt revealed that the mid-2012 MacBook Pro models are a bear to service, but if that weren't enough,...
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NVIDIA today has made available new beta drivers for GeForce graphics card owners, version 304.48. Playing with beta code comes with certain risks, of course (like potentially wonky behavior and instability issues), but there are also rewards to be had, like up to 60 percent better performance in Total War: Shogun 2...
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Apple's iOS platform isn't without its selection of third party browsers, including ones that can handle Flash content (albeit not very well, in our experience). But one browser maker that has yet to join the iOS party is Mozilla, the company behind Firefox, and guess what? Mozilla has something brewing for the iPad. It's called "Junior,"...
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If you're considering buying a Kindle Fire tablet (or glorified eBook reader, if you prefer to call it that), you may want to hang tight to see if you can score a better deal. Amazon is reportedly getting ready to cut the price of the Kindle Fire to around $149 as it makes room for newer tablet PC devices. That tidbit comes from DigiTimes,...
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Still pissed at your parents for trashing your vintage baseball card or comic book collection when you were a teen? Hey, it could worse. Imagine if they would have tossed a barrel of old Apple gear into the garbage bin. Apple nostalgia is apparently commanding premium prices these days, as evidenced by an Apple I motherboard and an old handwritten...
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We like Dropbox because it's simple, effective, and up to this point, has been a reliable way to take advantage of cloud storage. If you're like us, you're a fan of Dropbox too. And if you've never used it, you should check it out, though your experience might be slightly different than those of us who are already using the service. "After...
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Good news for the AMD faithful who are attracted to Samsung's Series 5 thin and light notebooks. It appears Samsung has decided to play both sides of the processor ball field, including not only Intel Ivy Bridge configurations, but also a couple of models that boast AMD's Trinity-based accelerated processing units (APUs) inside. The Samsung...
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From the very moment Ultrabooks emerged, Intel always envisioned these lightweight, high-performance PCs striking a balance between cutting edge hardware, portability, and price. For the most part, Ultrabook makers have been able to juggle all three, but as far as Intel is concerned, these thin and light machines still need to come down in...
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