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
In an effort to make online shopping and authentication more secure and less reliant on passwords, an increasing number of companies are joining the FIDO Alliance, which among other things is pushing for the use of fingerprint scanning. MasterCard is the latest to join the FIDO Alliance, and perhaps one of the most...
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Wow, talk about hitting the jackpot. In the absence of official announcements and acknowledgements of upcoming products, we often have to rely on leaked photos that are often blurry and chatty tipsters to get a heads up on a next generation product. That's mostly been the case with Google's Nexus 5 smartphone, though...
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The Internet has made it tough for some brick-and-mortar businesses to stay afloat, and that's especially true in the field of electronics. There's a trail of electronics retailers that fell by the wayside and either closed shop entirely or were bought out, such as CompUSA, Good Guys, and Circuit City. Best Buy has...
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The online search wars are serious business, so when Microsoft got called out by a Yale study suggesting the Redmond software giant's claims of users choosing Bing over Google at a nearly 2-to-1 clip in its "Bing It On" challenge are hogwash, Microsoft felt compelled to fire back and address each and every point of...
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Twitter has filed paperwork for an Initial Public Offering (IPO) and there are some staggering numbers for potential investors to consider. The ones Twitter hopes they'll focus on the most are the figures detailing its revenue growth over the past few years. For example, Twitter's revenue in 2012 was $316.9 million...
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Egads, talk about a tale of two different tech firms moving in completely opposite directions. Let's start with Samsung, the South Korean handset maker that's becoming the face of Android in the smartphone space. For the second year in a row, Samsung posted record earnings with an operating profit of 38.5 trillion...
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Adobe is trying to downplay a recent security breach by saying that "cyber attacks are one of the unfortunate realities of doing business today," and even though that might be true, it's unlikely to provide comfort to the 2.9 million customers whose data was compromised. Hackers made off with Adobe customer IDs...
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Rockstar Games on Friday announced that the latest title update for the online component of Grand Theft Auto V is live for PlayStation 3, while the developer is working to have another patch available for Xbox 360 gamers "as soon as possible today." The second patch is intended to address a "variety of technical...
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If you have a teenage son or daughter, you've probably spotted them making weird and contorted faces at their smartphone's front-facing camera. They're using Snapchat, a wildly popular photo and video sharing application in which users can send each other snapshots or short recordings that are viewable for anywhere...
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Google is apparently getting really serious about gesture control. In addition to acquiring Flutter, a San Francisco-based startup that develops gesture recognition technology, the sultan of search filed a patent application for using gestures in vehicles to perform a number of functions, such as changing the volume of music, raising or lowering...
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It's been a little over a year since Google's original Nexus 7 tablet introduced Jelly Bean to the market, and though it was initially slow to roll out to more device, it's now found on nearly half of all Android devices around the world, according to Google's Developers Dashboard. Unfortunately, the bulk of those...
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The future of computing may very well lie in gesture control, hence the popularity of platforms like Microsoft's Kinect sensor and growing interest in devices like the Leap Motion controller. Not to be left behind, search giant Google has gone and scooped up Flutter, a San Francisco-based startup that develops hand gesture recognition technology....
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There was already a lot to like about Google's Chromecast device (check out our review), a $35 dongle that you plug into your big screen TV's HDMI port for streaming fun, and now it's even better. That's because Google and Hulu have been working together to build a Hulu Plus app for Chromecast, and that app is now...
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We were on hand at Microsoft's unveiling of its Surface 2 and Surface 2 Pro, and having seen and played with these second generation devices in person, we can say we're much more enthused with these products than their first generation siblings. They're fast, well configured, and sport several improvements for a...
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The drama surrounding Apple's second generation iPad mini tablet and whether or not it will sport a Retina-class display continues as rumors of a supply shortage come to light. Plan and simple, people working in Apple's supply chain are saying that it's not feasible to introduce an iPad mini with a high resolution...
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Since Steve Ballmer is stepping down from his role as Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft, the Redmond software giant is getting a bit of a fresh start, and depending on who takes his place, the company will get a fresh new perspective, as well. However, some feel that Ballmer's departure isn't enough; they want...
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It's widely expected that Apple plans to follow up the launch of its iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C handets with new iPad and iPad mini tablets, though it's still a bit of a mystery as to when those products will be announced. Based on leaked info and rumor mill chatter, most analysts believe Apple is on pace to announce a...
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Looking for a job this holiday shopping season? It's one of the busiest times of the year for hiring employees, and that includes for companies that are primarily based online. To wit, Amazon is planning to hire an astounding 70,000 full-time seasonal employees across its various order fulfillment centers in the U.S...
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Some people get all the luck. As you're probably aware, Verizon Wireless nixed its unlimited data plan over a year ago in favor of a tiered data packages that can be shared among family members on the same account. If you were an existing unlimited data subscriber at the time of the change, you could keep your plan...
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Dropbox helped popularize the idea of saving everything to the cloud, and by being one of the first services to offer seamless integration with the desktop and mobile devices, it has a distinct advantage in name recognition. It also faces stiff competition these days from a number of competitors like SkyDrive...
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Today is a big day for Rockstar Games and its super popular Grand Theft Auto franchise. Grand Theft Auto Online goes live today, marking the first time the franchise will have an online multiplayer component. Hours before the launch, Rockstar Games decided to post several more details about online gameplay and what...
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AT&T dropped us a note today to let us know it's planning to carry Samsung's Galaxy Note 3 phablet and Galaxy Gear smartwatch online and in stores beginning October 4. The Galaxy Note 3 will be available for $299.99 with a two-year service agreement, or $35 per month if you opt for AT&T Next. As for the Galaxy...
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