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
You can't very well call yourself a power user if you don't have VLC installed on your desktop system, the popular media player that will play anything nearly anything and everything you throw at it. Wouldn't it be rad if VLC was available on Android? The answer is 'yes' and, to an extend, VLC for Android has arrived. It's an unofficial build,...
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Microsoft's Windows 8 Consumer Preview has attracted over 1 million downloads since it was made available to the public yesterday, and there's no reason to believe that number won't continue to grow. It isn't the only piece of Windows 8 software out there, however. To ensure smooth sailing with your Radeon graphics...
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Few companies are as active in the solid state drive (SSD) space as OCZ, and so it makes perfect sense that it will use the upcoming CeBIT tradeshow in Hannover, Germany to showcase client and enterprise SSDs, including its soon-to-be-released Vertex 4 SSD Series. That means waiting a few more days for the full scoop...
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Redbox did something with Universal that it wasn't able to do with Warner Bros., and that's hammer out a multi-year agreement that will continue to make Universal DVDs and Blu-ray discs available for rental nationwide 28 days following their home release. The 28-day window has become somewhat of a standard between...
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Job security is tough thing to come by these days, a fact that resonating in various departments at International Business Machines (IBM), the third-largest publicly traded technology company in the world and the largest computer services supplier on the planet. Despite its credentials and standing in the global...
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It's never been a foregone conclusion that Sony's PlayStation Vita would be a success, and in fact there were/are several factors working against it. For one, the device's launch in the U.S. ended up being delayed, and while it was released on time in Japan, there were complaints of glitches that drummed up bad publicity for the handheld console....
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Totally silent computing isn't exactly the Holy Grail of PC enthusiasts, but it is a worthy challenge that carries just as much geek cred as overclocking. Companies are making it easier to get the job done. Take Sapphire, for instance, which just announced what it claims is the "first totally silent card to embody all...
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Great news if you're a Windows fan. Microsoft has just made available the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, which you can download right this very second. Included in the Consumer Preview is the much ballyhooed Metro UI along with scores of changes -- over 100,000 -- Microsoft made to the OS since releasing the Developer...
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A new era of home entertainment is upon us. If you think about how you watch TV today versus 10 or even five years ago, it's probably a completely different experience. Nearly everything is served up in high definition, digital video recorders (DVRs) are now the norm and not the exception, and streaming services are making a big push to be...
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Remember the Galaxy Tab 7.7 device Samsung announced at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) earlier this year in Las Vegas? Well it's about to land at Verizon Wireless where it will be sold exclusively beginning March 1, 2012 for $500 with a two-year service agreement and qualifying 4G LTE mobile broadband plan...
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Don't sweat it if you've never heard of Roccat Studios. Based out of Germany and focused on gaming peripherals, Roccat Studios has only recently begun making a push into the U.S. market, where it will go up against established entities like Razer and Logitech. One of the products it plans to take with it into battle...
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If you head over to Best Buy's Store Exchange & Return Policy page, you'll notice that the electronics chain limits the return window for computers, monitors, projectors, camcorders, digital cameras, iPads, tablets, and radar detectors to 14 days. All other products carry a 30-day return/exchange windows, and 45...
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Time is running out if you plan to sell your iPad 2 device on Craigslist or eBay and maximize your return in anticipation of Apple's iPad 3 launch. The general consensus is that Apple will announce the iPad 3 in March and possibly start selling the device in April, but if you're looking to unload your iPad 2 for the...
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In addition to new device announcements and technology reveals, some interesting revelations are coming out of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona this week. One of those is the number of Android activations that occur on a daily basis. According to Andy Rubin, Senior Vice President of Mobile at Google who oversees the development...
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Asus lived up to its promise of unveiling its PadFone at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona. The PadFone, if this is the first you're hearing of it, is a hybird phone-tablet device, or as Asus pitches it, a three-in-one device that can be used as a smartphone, tablet, or notebook when plopped into the...
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LCD makers got caught with their hands in the cookie jar, so to speak, and now it's time to pay up. The State of California Department of Justice announced a $538 million settlement resulting from a lawsuit filed in October 2010 against 10 companies who allegedly "conspired to fix, raise, maintain, or stabilize prices of TFT-LCD flat panels...
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Pretty much every modern smartphone on the planet can upload videos to YouTube so you can share those impromptu and/or embarrassing moments caught on camera, but what if you want to relive those comical incidents instantly with a group of offline friends and family? One of your few options is to huddle around your phone's 4+ inch display and...
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T-Mobile's been having a rough time lately. First it failed to get an iPhone device, leaving it as the only major wireless carrier to offer one. And then the whole AT&T acquisition fell to pieces, which would have negated the iPhone's absence from T-Mobile, since AT&T already carries it. Customers aren't sticking around, either. T-Mobile...
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Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) plans to use resonant clock mesh technology developed by Cyclos Semiconductor to push its Piledriver processor line to 4GHz and beyond, the company announced at the International Solid State Circuits Conferences (ISSCC) in San Francisco. Cyclos is the only supplier of resonant clock mesh...
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Kids today know nothing of dragging a sagging pants pocket full of quarters or tokens to the local arcade, which means they also missed out on some gaming classics, like Rampage, Defender, Joust, and Spy Hunter. Sure, they're a little lame by today's standards, but if you have a nostalgic itch to scratch, $0.99 and a...
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How many times growing up did you hear a teacher tell you to get your head out of the clouds and pay attention? She wouldn't have spouted such foolishness if she knew there was 50GB of free storage space sitting in the cloud, just waiting for you to pluck it with your Android device. That's exactly what's up there, courtesy of Box, which is...
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Should tablets be including when tallying the number of mobile PC shipments? If the answer is yes, then Apple is dominating the competition with nearly three times the number of mobile PC shipments than its nearest competitor, according to data provided by DisplaySearch. According to DisplaySearch, Apple shipped close...
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