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'll find all sorts of amenities on Gigabyte's newly launched and limited edition Z97X-SOC Force LN2 motherboard. It boasts a 2x copper printed circuit board (PCB), onboard buttons for various functions, four-way CrossFire support with an "OC Brace" to keeps those cards in place when using an open-air chassis (or...
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Apple CEO Tim Cook took a risk by going to WWDC without any hardware announcements -- no new iPad or iPhone, for example -- but in the absence of new gadgets, the Cupertino outfit generated some excitement by overhauling Mac OS X 10. The new version -- OS X 10.10 Yosemite -- brings to the table a redesigned UI with a...
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When the original Mortal Kombat released to arcade cabinets over two decades ago, players delighted in the violent game play while parents and politicians were shocked at the content. It may not seem like a big deal today, but at the time, it pushed the envelope in terms of what was acceptable in video games. Fast...
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How do you deliver broadband Internet access to areas that are off the beaten path, both stateside and abroad? Google may have found that answer to that question by staring into space. According to several reports, the Mountain View firm is planning to spend anywhere from $1 billion to $3 billion shooting low-altitude...
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It looks like HP is wanting to flesh out its product line so that it has a little something for everyone, hence the launch of the HP SlateBook, a 14-inch laptop running Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. That's right -- Android is the star of the show, not Chrome OS or Windows. Why Android? Perhaps HP is looking to test the market. After all, the OEM...
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Smartphones that are the roughly the size of Texas don't exactly dominate the handset category, but there's certainly an audience for so-called phablet devices. Hence why HTC launched the One Max last year, a bigger sized version of the One and the foil to Samsung's popular Galaxy Note family. This year HTC was...
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It's time to say 'goodbye' to TrueCrypt, the popular open-source full disk encryption software, which was abruptly shut down earlier this week by the anonymous developers who built the program. According to a message on TrueCrypt's website, the software is no longer secure and may contain unfixed security issues. "The...
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Windows Phone is improving all the time. Sure, there's a huge discrepancy in market share between Windows Phone and either iOS or Android, but Microsoft isn't standing idly by. Just the opposite, Microsoft just released its Files app for Windows Phone 8.1, which introduces a file management system to the mobile OS...
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There's a lot of funny business taking place on the web's back end these days. Just ask Netflix, the popular streaming video service, which reluctantly inked a mulit-year agreement with Comcast to ensure that its video would be delivered to Comcast's subscribers without a speed degradation. Prior to inking the deal...
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It would appear that Amazon is on a mission to make its Amazon Prime service the end-all-be-all package for entertainment and convenience. Amazon Prime members already receive free and discounted expedited shipping options, unlimited streaming of a vast catalog of movies and TV shows, free Kindle ebook rentals, and...
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Find yourself wondering how development on the newest Unreal Tournament is coming along? It just so happens that Epic Games posted video footage of its upcoming first person shooter to YouTube, which offers up a limited look at Unreal Tournament's first-ever Deathmatch game play. Things are pretty basic at the moment...
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Nintendo has decided to mix a bit of old school styling with a new generation video game. More specifically, Nintendo is releasing a four-port adapter for the Wii U that will allow gamers to plug in up to four GameCube controllers for its upcoming Super Smash Bros. title. It's not yet clear if the adapter will work with other titles or if...
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We've all heard the phrase "Go big or go home," but how about "Go wide or go home?" The latter is the message Lenovo is sending with its B750 All-in-One Desktop PC, which offers a spacious and brilliant 29-inch super-widescreen In-Plane Switching (IPS) display to play with. It has a Full HD 2560x1080 resolution, which works out to a 21:9...
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It's being reported that a deal has been made to sell the Los Angeles Clippers to Steve Ballmer, 58, the former chief executive officer (CEO) of Microsoft. Shelly Sterling, estranged wife of disgraced Clippers controlling owner Donald Sterling, signed off on the agreement as sole trustee of the Sterling family trust...
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The takeaway from a new survey is short and alarming: Hackers are winning the war. In a survey co-sponsored by PwC, the U.S. Secret Service, the CERT Division of Carnegie Mellon University's Software Engineering Institute, and CSO security news magazine, it was found that cybercriminals are more relentless than ever...
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Good news, football fans -- the NFL today announced new distribution partnerships with Amazon Fire TV and Kindle Fire, along with the Roku streaming platform for NFL Now, which is scheduled to launch in August ahead of the 2014 NFL season. NFL Now will be personalized based on each fan's interests, so they can follow...
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Australian authorities are advising Apple device owners who have iCloud accounts to change their passwords due to a recent hacking/hijacking outbreak, and now it appears to be spreading to the U.S. as well. The attacks involve a hacker logging into an iCloud account and using the lost device feature to lock users out...
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If Acer, the world's fourth largest PC maker in terms of shipments, thought competing in the computer space was tough -- which it certainly is -- just wait until it gets a feel for the competition in the cloud sector that it's about to dive into. Acer's venture into the cloud will consist of making software and...
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If you're looking to make a splash in your next high-end gaming rig and have the requisite funds, EVGA will tempt you with not one, but three different NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan Z graphic card options. There's the standard model, if you can use such a term to describe a dual-GPU beast like the Titan Z, as well as a...
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Yahoo is reportedly in discussions with video producers about plans to debut a video service that will go head-to-head against YouTube, the uber-popular video site owned by Google. People at Yahoo originally planned to unveil the rival service in April to advertisers, but ultimately needed more time to iron out some...
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Perhaps some day in the far off future, we'll all own self-driving cars that get us from Point A to Point B with no fuss. We're nowhere near that point yet, but we are at the beginning stages. Google is especially pushing the concept and more recently began exploring what fully self-driving vehicles would look like by...
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Recently appointed Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella had an onstage conversation that lasted more than an hour at the inaugural Code Conferences in Ranco Palos Verdes, California, and among the topics that came up is language translation. Not by coincidence, the planned topic allowed Nadella to demo a...
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