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
Some of us do it in the dark, others do it with the lights on. Heck, I've even done it in public, more than once. Yes, at some point or another, we all drop our smartphones (what did you think I was talking about?, and it's a little surprising it doesn't happen more often when you think about the number of times it...
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If you ordered and paid for a single iPad tablet but received a box full of five iPads, what would you do? Such is the ethical dilemma a son and his girlfriend found themselves in after the boy's mother ordered him an iPad from Best Buy only for him to receive five of them. Before you say one way or the other, it...
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Finicky investors weren't as high on Apple yesterday as they have been in the past. Apple's share price dropped 6.4 percent on Wednesday, representing the company's biggest single-day drop in four years and shaving $35 billion from its market cap. What gives? That's a good question, and there are no concrete answer to be found, only theories....
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Let's be honest, the time we spend making calls on our smartphones pales in comparison to all the other activities we use it for, like surfing the web, logging into Facebook, streaming music and video, and of course playing games. It's that latter functionality that a startup called Green Throttle wants to tap into...
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The iPhone 5 has been available for two and a half months, and quite frankly, we're surprised it took this long for the first pics of what's supposed to be the inevitable iPhone 5S to appear online. But they're here now, and assuming they're real, you can expect the iPhone 5S to look just like its predecessor. No big surprise there. After...
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You can certainly make the argument that tablets didn't catch AMD or Intel "flat-footed" (and we in fact did make that argument), but at the same time, you have to give companies like Qualcomm credit for being well prepared for the mobile boom that we now find ourselves in. To wit, Qualcomm is now the world's third largest semiconductor player,...
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Your run-of-the-mill smartphone announcement usually involves the same old names, like HTC, Motorola, or Samsung. But one company you probably never heard of is Oppo. That's because Oppo doesn't really have much of a presence in the U.S. market, but it sure is looking to make a grand entrance with its Find 5 Android...
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Netflix went out and scored itself a multi-year licensing agreement that will make it the exclusive U.S. subscription television service for first-run live-action and animated feature films from The Walt Disney Studios, the streaming company announced this week. "Disney and Netflix have shared a long and mutually...
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Nokia on Tuesday added to its Windows Phone lineup by launching the Lumia 620, the third and most affordable device in its range of Windows Phone 8 smartphones. It slides underneath the top-end Lumia 920 (see our review) and mid-range Lumia 820, but unlike those other two, Nokia's entry-level WP8 device aims to offer...
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Just over two months ago, Linus Torvalds released the Linux 3.6 kernel in final form, opting to push it out to the public rather than building what would have been an eighth Release Candidate. At the time, he said he couldn't think of a major reason to do yet another RC. Since then, work has shifted to Linux 3.7, and...
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Mobile is trending high these days, though economic conditions are still the determining factor for any market. To wit, International Data Corporation (IDC) projects that the mobile phone market will grow just 1.4 percent year-over-year in 2012, the lowest annual growth rate in three years despite what it expects will be a record number of...
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Japanese TV maker Sharp is in desperate need of a cash infusion, and it may be getting one from Qualcomm, which is reportedly going to invest as much as $120 million into the company. That would make Qualcomm Sharp's largest share holder, and could save the company from collapse. According to Reuters, Qualcomm will...
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In need of a feel-good story heading into the heart of the holiday season? Well friends, you have one, and it comes courtesy of LEGO, or "The best company in the world" as seen through the eyes of one extremely grateful 11-year-old boy who received a discontinued train set from LEGO after he tried acquiring it on his...
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Good news for Samsung Galaxy S III owners riding AT&T's wireless waves. An official Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean update is now available for your device, beating both Verizon Wireless and U.S. Cellular to the punch (in the U.S.), though not T-Mobile, which has been doling out Jelly Bean for a few weeks. This is not an over-the-air (OTA) update,...
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Americans have an obsession with politics, smartphones, and celebrities, and apparently in that order. Or at least that's how it shook out on Yahoo! Search during an election year that saw President Barack Obama defeat GOP hopeful Mitt Romney in a hotly contested race. "The United States is sometimes criticized for...
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Let's dispense with an emerging myth right now: The desktop isn't dead. Far from it. Rather, the desktop is evolving, and this is an exciting time to be a technophile. The advancements we've seen in just the past 12 months are nothing short of remarkable. Solid state drives (SSDs) are getting faster and cheaper, finally making for a viable...
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A lot of the talk in the 7-inch tablet space revolves around the Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HD, and more recently, the iPad mini (7.85 inches). Lest anyone forget, Barnes & Noble competes in the handheld tablet space too, and it's hoping a special holiday offer in collaboration with MasterCard will nudge potential...
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At long last, the ultra small and cheap Raspberry Pi Model A is now being produced, with the first samples already coming off the assembly line, the Raspberry Pi Foundation announced in a blog post. The $35 Model B has been available to purchase for some time now, while the Model A is a slightly downgraded version that will sell for $25. "We’re...
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Had things gone to plan, AT&T would already be selling HTC's One VX smartphone, which was originally supposed to be available on November 16. For whatever reason, it didn't launch on the day AT&T announced, but don't despair. If you've been holding out for this mid-range device, you only have to make it through the week, as AT&T...
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The nimble fingered folks at iFixIt got their mitts on one of Apple's refreshed iMac models, so naturally the first thing they did was put it on the operating table for a full dissection. Before cracking the 21.5-inch iMac open, however, they discovered an interesting tidbit. On the back, sitting below the FCC stamp and various other certifications,...
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Yes, it's true machines pose a serious threat of human extinction (a group of Cambridge researchers thinks so, anyway), but they're so darn adorable, which is what might ultimately be our downfall. Until then, you might as well enjoy what our mechanical creations have to offer, like the real-life Pixar lamp that swings around and doesn't like...
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You might find this hard to believe (we certainly do), but obnoxious ringtones aren't the only ones that exist. If a study by Nokia is to be believed, classical music ringtones are actually the second most popular, followed by who-knows-what. It doesn't matter what came in third or fourth or fifth -- the point is, lots of mobile users enjoy...
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