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
Walmart just undercut the competition by announcing that Samsung's Galaxy S4 is available to pre-order in more than 3,500 retail locations nationwide and online starting at $168 with a two-year service agreement from AT&T. Barring any special promotions, that's 16 percent cheaper than the standard $200 subsidized...
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As a technology journalist, I'll be the first to admit it's easy to be cynical in this business. Developers often promise the moon and stars when touting new products, only to fall well short of delivering the goods (Duke Nukem Forever, if you need an example). At the same time, we inevitably take technology for...
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Android users in need of a high-end smartphone upgrade have a tough choice ahead of them. There's Samsung's Galaxy S4, which will be available on AT&T starting April 30 and at T-Mobile on May 1, and the HTC One, another promising handheld from a company that badly needs a win. Here's what we know about the HTC One's release dates. You...
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If you've been shopping a 7-inch tablet, there's a good chance Google's Nexus 7 is high on your list, or at least on your radar. As it should be, the Nexus 7 is still arguably the best 7-inch slate on the market nine months after launch, though if you've put off making the plunge for this long, you might want to wait...
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Mobile users have responded positively to the idea of taking, sending, and receiving photos and videos that are viewable for a short period of time before they're gone forever. Such is the idea behind Snapchat, a mobile app for iPhone and Android users that touts being able to "share a moment" up to 10 times faster...
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It's been rumored on more than one occasion that Apple is going to release a lower cost iPhone model made of polycarbonate plastic in place of metal and glass. The simple reason Apple might even consider breaking its own status quo (and for the record, Apple denies that it is) is because Android holds the lion's share of the mobile market....
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It was rumored that Dish Network is interested in merging with T-Mobile, but only if a deal with Sprint can't be consummated. Sprint is the first choice, and towards that end, the satellite TV provider is offering the wireless carrier $25.5 billion in a buyout offer. The deal would include $17.3 billion in cash and $8.2 billion in stock, which...
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There are luxury phones, like Vertu's $10,000 Android device, and then there's the world's most expensive iPhone device, an iPhone 5 reconstructed with expensive jewels and gold. The centerpiece of the lavish iPhone is a rare and flawless 26-carat black diamond inlaid where the Home button used to be. The black...
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Here's a friendly reminder that today is the last day to file your individual tax returns (Form 1040, 1040A, or 1040EZ) unless you're requesting an extension, in which case you still have six more months. Either way, if you're looking to splurge on a display with your anticipated tax refund, AOC hopes you'll be tempted by its new Q2963PM monitor...
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After a freeze in hiring was instituted in February, Foxconn (Hon Hai Precision) has reportedly begun expanding its workforce at a factory in Zhengzhou, China. It's believed Foxconn is bringing in new employees to fulfill the inevitable demand for Apple's next iPhone, rumors of which have been swirling for several months now. Citing a "person...
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It was easy to kick BlackBerry when it was down, but now that it's risen from the ashes of Research In Motion (RIM) with a new name, a new flagship phone, and a new outlook on its mobile life, the spunky Canadian company is showing that it isn't afraid to engage in some verbal fisticuffs when necessary. Now apparently...
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Some Xbox 360 gamers who tried to sign into Xbox Live over the weekend may have run into difficulties doing so. That's because the service was down for a period of time, and it couldn't have come at a worse time for a couple of reasons, especially for Call of Duty: Black Ops II players. Activision's been awarding...
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There's still a large audience for games with a high level of difficulty. Such would explain why Dark Souls, the spiritual successor to Demon's Souls and one heck of a tough game, has sold 2.36 million copies to date, according to data released by developer From Entertainment. The includes 375,000 sales in Japan on...
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It's been a long and often times tumultuous road to the iPhone for T-Mobile, the fourth largest carrier in the U.S. that was nearly absorbed by AT&T a little over a year ago. T-Mobile yesterday starting selling iPhone 5 devices, and in doing so, it became the last of the major wireless carriers to offer Apple's...
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We're not trying to pick on Verizon Wireless today (really, we're not), but we can't help it if the wireless carrier insists on putting targets on its back. The latest bit of news from Big Red is that it's getting rid of early upgrade eligibility and requiring that its subscribers ride out the entire length of their...
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Desktops and data centers are two very different beasts, and what's true of one might not be true of the other. For example, even though solid state drive (SSD) pricing has fallen dramatically in past year, it's still cheaper to equip a desktop or laptop system with a mechanical hard disk drive (HDD). The same isn't...
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No need to adjust your PC monitor or tablet display (or whatever you're viewing this one), the picture you see below is indeed a T-Mobile store, and yes, that's a line extending out and wrapping around the building. That's quite the unusual sight, though there are reports of lines forming at several T-Mobile retail stores today. The reason,...
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It's usually a good idea to install Windows updates as they become available every Patch Tuesday so you can stay one step ahead of the bad guys. Unfortunately, things can wrong every once in awhile, as they did with the most recent batch of updates. After installing the patches, some users complained of system instabilities and blue screen...
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Verizon Wireless rolled out a couple of new basic pre-paid plans for chatter bugs on a budget, and included in both tiers is unlimited data. The first is a $35 plan that buys you 500 monthly minutes of talk time and unlimited text and data. If you go over the allotted minutes, you're charged 25 cents for each one thereafter. Or you can plan...
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If your moral compass doesn't dissuade you from pirating games, maybe the prevalence of malware will. According to the latest research from AVG, game hacks and cracks almost always contain malicious code, as in more than 90 percent of the time, depending on where the downloads originate. In other words, for every 10 times you download a keygen...
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Well, it's official. Florida governor Rick Scott signed into legislation the "Internet Cafe Ban," which effectively closed down around 1,000 such establishments in the state. The ban went into effect immediately, though some cafes shut their doors a week ago under the assumption that the ban would go through. A report in Florida Today paints...
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PC sales are slumping in a big way and there's plenty of blame to go around. Before get into that, let's have a look at how bad things really are. According to new data released by the International Data Corporation (IDC), global PC shipments totaled just 76.3 million units in the first quarter of 2013, down nearly 14...
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