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
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has long sought to demonize file sharers who download, trade, and share songs illegally, noting that the cumulative impact of their deeds -- obtaining millions of songs illegally -- is nothing short of devastating. But is it really? A new study throws a...
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Security outfit Avast Software has partnered with Facebook to share its Virus Lab data with the social networking service. In doing so, Facebook now has access to Avast's real-time cloud database, which it will use to block malware from being shared unwittingly by its users. When you click on a link within Facebook...
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Boxee has yet another device it wants you to know about. It's called Boxee TV, a sort of do-everything set-top box that combines Live TV, Internet apps, and a "first-of-its-kind Cloud DVR" into a single package that costs $99. "With Boxee TV you’ll be able watch live TV broadcasts in beautiful HD from channels...
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The last thing Foxconn needs right now is more negative publicity over working conditions at its factories in China, but it seems the iPhone manufacturer just can't seem to help itself. Foxconn's self-inflicted black eye this time around comes from fessing up that it hired underage interns at one of its facilities...
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The holiday shopping season is just around the corner, and with it comes a flurry of temporary job openings. Even online companies are looking to bring workers into the fold. Case in point is Amazon, the mega e-tailer with warehouses spread across the nation. Anticipating a busy shopping season, Amazon plans to hire more than 50,000 seasonal...
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A little bit of perspective never hurts every once in awhile, and Saturday Night Live provided plenty of it in regards to the plethora of complaints related to Apple's recently launched iPhone 5 device. The general consensus is that the iPhone 5 is another winning product from Apple, but it's not without its flaws...
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With Nintendo getting ready to roll out its next generation Wii U console on November 18, 2012, the company decided now was a good time to cut the price of its existing Wii hardware, or at least to announce it. Effective October 28, you'll be able to snag a black Wii bundle for $130 (MSRP), down $20 from the previous...
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Apple wasn't fooling anyone when it neglected to give its 13-inch MacBook Pro model the same Retina Display facelift that the 15-inch model received. Let's face it, Apple loves staggered release schedules, partly to build up hype to a particularly product or technology. We all know it's only a matter of time before...
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CyberPowerPC's system lineup just grew by three today with the introduction of its Zeus Storm series of desktops, which is represented by a trio of gaming systems that swing whichever way you do (AMD or Intel processors; NVIDIA or AMD graphics cards). The least expensive of the three is the Zeus 1000, an AMD-based system that starts at $1,429....
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It's said that one's man trash is another man's treasure, and while it appears Texas Instruments wants to rid itself of its mobile division, mega e-tailer Amazon sees the situation as a potential goldmine. To wit, Amazon is reportedly close to striking a deal to buy TI's mobile chip business, which incidentally is...
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Extrapolate from this what you will, but when it comes to browsing the Web, Apple's iPhone 5 device is generating more traffic than Samsung's Galaxy S III, according to data collected by Chitika Insights. The research firm says it conducted a "user agent analysis on millions of mobile ad impressions," and did so for a week straight (October...
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There have been more iPad Mini rumors lately than you can shake an Apple tree at, but rest assured, it will all soon be over. No, Apple hasn't confirmed the existence of a shrunken iPad tablet, however the Cupertino company is reportedly holding a press event on October 23rd, where it will almost assuredly launch the device. The invitation-only...
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Google Play is about to become a safer place to download apps. It sounds weird to say that after all this time, but it's not terribly uncommon to find malware laying in wait -- just ask the 80,000+ users who downloaded a fake copy of Bad Piggies. With the latest update to Google Play, it's been discovered that Google has introduced a built-in...
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Now that Mozilla has addressed the security flaw in Firefox 16 that prompted the developer to pull the build offline (it's now back online and ready for download), the focus has shifted to Firefox 17, which you can already snag via the beta channel. One of the things that's different with Firefox 17 is that it...
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Apparently taking a billion dollars from Samsung wasn't enough, Apple wants its rival's engineers, too. It's getting one in Jim Mergard, who previously served Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) for 16 years as vice president and chief engineer before accepting employment at Samsung. Now he's going to work for Apple. It's not unusual to see top level...
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The coding and testing phase of Microsoft's next generation Office productivity suite -- Office 2013 -- is complete, with the focus now shifting to distribution. It starts with pushing the software out to RTM, or Release to Manufacturing, which means it's available to OEMs and business partners. "This is the most ambitious release of Office...
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If you're afraid of snakes, find a place to hide because the new Fang Taipan that just slithered into CyberPowerPC's lineup is every bit as potent as we've seen from a gaming a notebook. Exactly how potent depends on your budget, and if money's no object, you can deck this thing out with dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M...
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Will there or won't there be an iPad Mini? And if Apple is planning to launch a smaller size tablet, when will it launch? Those are both good questions, and unfortunately all we have to go on are rumors and speculation. One thing we can tell you, however, is that original iPad owners are the most likely to purchase an...
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It's long been suspected that Amazon either sells its Kindle hardware at cost or at a loss, choosing instead to price its mobile devices aggressively and rake in the profits through content sales, such movies, music, and apps. With regards to the new Kindle Fire HD and Paperwhite models, Amazon isn't taking a hit on...
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Microsoft has high hopes for Windows 8, its next generation operating system that represents perhaps the biggest change to the Windows ecosystem since Windows 95. Intel would call this release a "tock"; Microsoft calls it the future of computing, one in which mobile and stationary products are unified with a...
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One of the downsides to Mozilla's rapid release schedule for Firefox is that new updates are at risk of being rushed to the public before they're ready for prime time. We're not sure if that's what happened here, but we do know that Mozilla yanked Firefox 16 from the web just a few hours after posting the download...
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Samsung has begun sending out invites for its Galaxy Note II press event in the U.S., which will take place in New York on October 24, just under two weeks from now. The Galaxy Note II, or "the next big thing," as Samsung likes to refer to it, is hardly a secret at this point, but what remains a mystery are pricing details and specific carrier...
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