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
NVIDIA is rolling out some big changes (more of them) to its GeForce NOW cloud gaming service that affect the 'Priority' tier, which is now renamed to 'Performance' to reflect the upgrades, including a bump from 1080p to support for 1440p gaming. Best of all, there's no change in price—NVIDIA is retaining the same...
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When it comes to artificial intelligence (AI) tools, companies are leaving no stone unturned. Even Notepad, the humble little text editor in Windows, is getting a generative AI upgrade. Same goes for Paint, and if you're a Windows Insider in the Canary or Dev channel, you can begin testing the nifty new features right...
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Now that we're a week into November, it won't be long before retailers start promoting Black Friday and Cyber Monday discounts. Heck, to some extent, it's already starting to happen. Earlier this week, we rounded up several great MacBook Air and Beats deals with discounts up to 50% off. Switching gears, today's focus...
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Bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency of them all, surged to an all-time high valuation in the nighttime hours as it became apparent that former President Donald Trump had the necessary votes to defeat current Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 Presidential election. While the votes are still being tallied...
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Nintendo still is not ready to reveal a successor to its immensely popular Switch console just yet, but it is sharing some additional information that will come as great news to owners of current generation Switch consoles, especially those with big game libraries. In a post on X/Twitter, Nintendo President Shuntaro...
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The original Wii console (not to be confused with the Wii U) is one of the most popular game consoles of all time, and Nintendo's fourth-best selling console ever at 101.63 million units, trailing only the Game Boy (118.69 million units), Switch family (146.04 million units), and Nintendo DS (154.02 million units)...
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It would be dopey of AMD to only release a single current-generation consumer processor (read: Zen 5) with 3D V-Cache, and also unprecedented. So color us not the least bit surprised that a major hardware partner—Gigabyte, in case you skipped right past the headline—has essentially confirmed that at least one more...
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It's Election Day in the United States and, following mad dashes to the polling booths, it will take some time to determine the results. In the meantime, however, when it comes to two other popular candidates—Windows 11 and Windows 10—we have some figures to share, though you'll have to decide for yourself which one...
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At some point, we'll have to scale back our coverage of a high-tech game of leapfrog involving two notable hardware teams—ASUS paired with G.Skill, and MSI teamed with Kingston. Both sets have joined forces with professional overclockers to claim (and reclaim) DDR5 speed records, with the new speed to beat set at...
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We would hope that dropping a solid state drive (SSD) wouldn't destroy it, even on a hard surface like tile or concrete, not unless you also happen to step on it immediately after it hits the ground. Nevertheless, ASUS is offering up another rugged enclosure for anyone who wants a portable storage solution, and it...
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Apple may not the be the first company that comes to mind when it talking about video games, but it's not necessarily for lack of trying, or even interest—some stats suggest the video games market is approaching $300 billion, and that number will only continue to grow. Apple's presence is limited, but can its newly...
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Savvy shoppers realize that the best way to maximize the bang-for-buck factor when it comes to home electronics is to wait until previous generation products drop in price. The key is figuring out which ones still offer relevant features and capable hardware, especially if you hold onto devices for a long time. We...
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Shares of Intel spiked in aftermarket trading hours last night and remains up (by more than 5.5%) early this morning, as investors are focused on the future and not the $16.6 billion loss that Intel reported for its third quarter of 2024, its biggest quarterly loss ever. The reason? A loss wasn't unexpected on the...
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As of right now, the M4 Max is the fastest slice of silicon that Apple has ever designed, and that will remain the case until the inevitable M4 Ultra shows up to the Apple Silicon party. Not only is the M4 Max the fastest chip in Apple's stable, it also posted the highest single-core test on Geekbench, at least if...
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Today is Halloween, and that means kids, teens, and sometimes adults will be lurking the streets dressed up in costumes and going door-to-door trying to score a bag or bucket full of candy. There are other treats to be had, though, and namely some delicious discounts on gaming hardware. Whether you're in retro gaming...
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Surprise! After teasing the next generation of 3D V-Cache processors for consumers for a November 7 arrival, AMD chose today, Halloween, to treat gamers to a much-anticipated announcement—the oft-leaked Ryzen 7 9800X3D is now official, with AMD confirming several key details, including a "revolutionary change" to the...
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In what might comes as a surprise to some and not to others, early demand for Intel's fresh-out-of-the-oven Core Ultra 200S processors appears virtually non-existent at Mindfactory, the largest online PC parts retailer in Germany. Preliminary sales data indicates that Mindfactory has not yet sold even just a single...
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Remember when Minisforum teased a tiny Zen 5 titan last month? Now several weeks later, we not only have confirmation on the full set of specifications, but also an introductory discount that shaves $300 off the MSRP on its EliteMini AI370 mini PC. On top of that, Minisforum is dangling a bonus offer for the first 150...
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You might not know it by looking at AMD's stock price this morning (more on that later), but the company is coming off its biggest-performing quarter, with third-quarter revenue tallying $6.8 billion. That's an 18% increase year-over-year and a 17% jump sequentially. This led to a monster gain in net income (profit)...
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Following an initial unveiling at Computex earlier this year, ASUS has released its ZenScreen Smart MS27UC, which if the somewhat clunky name doesn't give away, is the company's first ever Google TV-powered smart monitor. That basically means no dedicated PC is required for basic chores like browsing the web or to log...
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Don't you hate it when companies skimp on storage? We're looking at you, Apple, but not only you. Part of the reason (beyond greed) is a balance between cost and capacity, with whatever storage options are available at any given moment. In a move that could see manufacturers beef up the baseline storage on future...
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We've talked a lot about CUDIMMs, or Clock Unbuffered Dual Inline Memory Modules over the past week or so, but that's not the only development in memory. In what we hope becomes a trend, memory makers are starting to implement both AMD EXPO and Intel XMP profiles on the same DDR5 kits, with PNY the latest to do so...
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