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
Your living room is proving the next battleground for tech companies, and towards that end, Samsung on Sunday unveiled its HomeSync set-top box. Samsung's billing the device as a home hub solution capable of wirelessly streaming content from your Galaxy devices to your HDTV. It's powered by a 1.7GHz dual-core...
Read more...
Privacy advocates owe a debt of gratitude to Jonathan Mayer, a grad student at Standford who developed a patch for Firefox that, by default, blocks third-party cookies from installing on their browser, thereby protecting users from being tracked by advertisers. Mozilla plans to bake the patch into Firefox 22, which...
Read more...
Windows 8 sales may have gotten off to somewhat of a slow start, but has since sold 60 million copies, which includes both individual licenses and new PC sales with Windows 8 pre-installed. That figure may get a boost in the coming weeks as Best Buy starts offering discounts on touchscreen PCs. According to The Wall...
Read more...
The life of a PC gamer isn't always easy. Sometimes we have to watch our console brethren play a particular title while we wait months for the PC release, as will probably be the case with Rockstar's upcoming Grand Theft Auto V, and in other instances, we're saddled with crappy ports (Resident Evil 4, anyone?). We only bring this up to underscore...
Read more...
Here we thought having a 13-megapixel (MP) rear-facing camera on a mobile device was something special -- pshaw! Zobo, a mobile player in China and other territories, is throwing down the gauntlet with a 5.7-inch phablet that carries a 32MP rear-facing cam -- holy overkill, Batman! Of course, there's more to the...
Read more...
The next-generation console ball is now in Microsoft's court. Nintendo is already moving full steam ahead with its Wii U console, which it released in November of last year, and earlier this week Sony formally introduced its upcoming PlayStation 4 console. That just leaves Microsoft as the odd man out among the three major console players....
Read more...
Way back in late 2007, we declared "the sky's the limit for Google stock," which at the time was trading at just over $600 per share. Nearly six years later, that might still be true. The sultan of search set a record earlier this week, becoming the first tech firm to surpass the $800 per share mark. That in itself isn't terribly meaningful...
Read more...
The "Smart Connected Devices" market grew by 29.1 percent in 2012, and was largely driven by tablet and smartphone growth, according to International Data Corporation's (IDC's) Worldwide Quarterly Smart Connected Device Tracker. Among the devices collectively tracked are desktop PCs, portable PCs, tablets, and...
Read more...
Many consumers have figured out they can save a bundle by cutting out cable/satellite service in favor of streaming media. Hulu Plus, for example, runs $8 per month and gives you access to many of the same TV shows that appear on cable TV networks, including extended director's cuts of sitcoms like Parks and...
Read more...
Is it a notebook or is it a tablet? Like a growing number of Windows 8 devices, the Transformer Book from Asus is both, depending on how you utilize it, and it's finally showing up to the party. Asus first introduced the Transformer Book all the way back in June of last year, and now eight months later, you can...
Read more...
Graduating from rumor to confirmation, Google's touch-enabled Chromebook is officially real. It's called Chromebook Pixel, just as Google teased in a YouTube video earlier this month, and with it comes a "rethinking" of the Chrome ecosystem, much in the same way Microsoft "reimagined" Windows when it introduced...
Read more...
Who would have thought an online, social scrapbooking site could be worth billions of dollars? Believe it or not, that's the case after a new round of funding netted Pinterest $200 million to play with, valuing it at $2.5 billion. Not bad for a site that was launch only two years ago. AllThingsD, which first reported...
Read more...
Do you hear that sound? It's the entire Internet, and especially console gamers, taking a collective sigh of relief after learning that Sony will not discriminate against used games. As boneheaded of a decision it would have been to not allow previously owned games to work on a next generation console, rumors persisted that Sony and Microsoft...
Read more...
In case you missed it, Sony at long last unveiled its PlayStation 4 console during a two-hour press event yesterday, featuring a surprise appearance by Blizzard, which is bringing Diablo III to the PS3 and PS4. You'll get to play that game (and many others) on Sony's wireless DualShock 4 controller. Yes, Sony is...
Read more...
Chinese authorities are none too happy with a recent report by a U.S. cyber security company highlighting suspicious hacking activities in China. According to the 60-page study released by Mandiant, the Chinese government is sponsoring a massive hacking effort against foreign companies and organizations. The report focused on the activities...
Read more...
For a period of time, it looked as though Google's Chromebook platform would simply fade into the footnotes of technological history, but it's seeing a bit of a renaissance as of late, being reborn as the modern day netbook. It started with some much needed price cuts (Acer sells its Chromebook for $199 and Samsung's model runs $249) and continues...
Read more...
Has it really been seven years since the last time Sony launched a major gaming console for the living room? You betcha it has, which means if you were 11 years old when the PlayStation 3 came out, you're now old enough to join the military, buy lottery tickets, and stand trial as an adult if you run afoul of the law. Or maybe your son or...
Read more...
Still to this day Samsung's sleek and sexy Galaxy S III is arguably the best smartphone on the market, depending on who you ask (iPhone 5 owners may disagree, though spec for spec, the Samsung's flagship phone has the edge). Is there anything better on the horizon? You better believe there is. Not only are several quad-core smartphones on...
Read more...
Good news for texting addicts: SwiftKey 4 is now available on Google Play, and it's a free upgrade if you're an existing user. Otherwise, it carries a promo price of $1.99 and is worth every penny if you do a lot of typing, or just want a better keyboard than the one that ships stock on Android. The secret sauce to SwiftKey 4's awesomeness...
Read more...
If you've ever told someone, "I'm not as think as you drunk I am," then you may benefit from a sobering pill that reduces the blood alcohol content in your system. Hold your horses -- before you run off to the local five and dime, understand that no such pill currently exists. Sure, there are remedies that claim to...
Read more...
The introduction of a new iPad mini model is a foregone conclusion, but what we don't know is what upgrades Apple will make to its second generation 7.9-inch tablet. Will it have a Retina display, or is Apple saving that upgrade for a third generation model? We won't know for sure until Apple officially introduces the...
Read more...
Companies that aren't extra careful with their social media accounts can end up with egg on their faces, and sometimes it just boils down to having a strong enough password. This is a point Twitter wants to drive home with its users following a couple of high profile hacker attacks on Burger King, which was hijacked...
Read more...
