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
Here's what we want you to do. Take whichever arm's stronger and clench a fist. Raise it above your head as high as you can, take a breath, and sock yourself in the gut if you've ever posted the question, "But can it run Crysis?" It hardly...
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Unless your Internet's been down for past couple of days, then by now you're undoubtedly aware that something's amiss with Sandy Bridge, or more specifically, the 6-series chipset built into socket 1155 boards that Sandy Bridge processors plop into. The "design flaw," as Intel calls it, is...
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Some couples buy each other chocolate for Valentine's Day. Others skip the gifts and take their partner out for a night on the town. And a few end up forgetting completely, ultimately winding up on the couch instead of the bedroom. If your significant other is jonesing for a new smartphone...
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Remember the Twilight Zone episode, Nightmare at 20,000 Feet? If only Facebook, digital cameras, and the Internet as we know it today had been around in the 1960s, William Shatner, who played the part of a nervous salesman on his first...
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Intel's 'little' screw-up with its 6-Series chipsets for the recently launched Sandy Bridge platform will cost the company an estimated $700 million to fix and repair affected boards and systems, with some saying the cost is likely to be...
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Let's be real here, trying to take on Netflix in the streaming media space is like, well, trying to take on Netflix in the streaming space. It's hard to imagine an upstart coming in and dethroning Netflix's growing business, but what about Amazon? No one in their right mind would describe...
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It looks as though T-Mobile is tapping into Samsung to build its new Sidekick 4G smartphone, which is keeping the newest Sidekick true to form in style. If leaked photos are to be believed, you can expect the Sidekick 4G to sport Google's Android OS and and probably a front-facing camera, the latest fad in smartphone design. TmoNews got its...
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Don't go hitting the panic button if you suddenly notice ads in your Gmail account, you're not the victim of a virus or any other malware looking to wreak havoc on your system. So what's going on? Apparently Google got the bright (and potentially lucrative) idea of testing out display ads in...
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Can you smell it in the air? It smells like a Honeycomb cooking, otherwise known as Android 3.0, which Google's trying to bake to perfection for the tablet space. The search titan has begun serving up samples of its next-generation OS to allow developers enough time to get acquainted with the new platform. "Today, we are releasing a preview...
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It's said that the squeaky wheel is the one that gets the oil, and there's been a lot of squeaky wheels complaining about borked hinges on Dell's Alienware M11x notebook line. In one forum thread, there's over 150 users who reported problems with their M11x, most of which cried foul over...
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What kind of topsy-turvy world would it be if Research In Motion (RIM) allowed BlackBerry devices to run Android applications? The awesome kind, that's what. More than just a pipe dream, Boy Genius Report insists such a future is possible, or so "multiple trusted sources" keep chirping in...
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Microsoft's Office for Mac portal has been a little wonky for us today, which might be the result of increased traffic and downloads. Why, you ask? The Redmond outfit is now offering a free trial of its Office for Mac 2011 software. The trial lets Mac users test out full versions of the software, albeit for 30 days (Windows users can play...
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Ready. Set. GO! If you've been patiently waiting to port your existing phone number over to Google Voice and flip the bird at your cellular company, start flexing your middle finger because your time has come. Following a limited preview of the service (Google initially only tagged a certain...
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For the better part of the second half of 2010 there's been plenty of hype surrounding the emerging tablet market, but few actual product releases. As 2011 slowly gets underway, things are starting to look different already. CES was bustling with working tablets, Android 3.0 is just around the...
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Someone over at Hewlett-Packard is apparently ultra-excited about the company's upcoming Topaz tablet -- the first slate to be built around HP's semi-newly acquired webOS platform -- and has leaked a ton of info and pictures to Pre|Central. Topaz, as you already know, is the name HP is giving its first webOS-based slate, and while some of...
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Little did Gail Davis know that she was the winner of Apple's 10 billionth App download promotion, because had she known that, she wouldn't have hung on up the Cupertino company. But that's exactly what she did when Apple called to inform her she had won a $10,000 iTunes gift card. "I thought...
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Hey, you there, out from under that rock. Have you heard? Verizon's going to carry Apple's iPhone 4 starting February 10, 2011. Oh, you have heard? Alright then, here's something you probably haven't seen just yet. It's Verizon's first commercial promoting the new partnership with Steve Jobs...
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You can debate the so-called "Apple Tax" all you want and whether or not it actually exists (and, in fact, we did just that -- see here), one thing we should all be able to agree on is that few other companies go the same lengths as Apple in keeping its users from poking around inside its...
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Let's forget for a moment that Apple's iPad has been on the market since April of last year and still has yet to really be challenged. Despite the lack of competition, market research firm IDC says the media tablet market still managed to grow 45.1 percent in the third of 2010. Much of that credit goes to the aforementioned iPad, but it's...
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Ever the crafty (and malicious) bunch, malware writers added a new trick to an old scam, and it appears to be working. According to the Internet Crime Complain Center (IC3), a recent FBI analysis reveals that cyber crooks are targeting employers with fake job applications capable of wreaking...
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Listen up tightwads, if you view paying for antivirus software only slightly more appealing than shoving bamboo under your fingernails, then we have good news for you. ClamAV recently announced the public beta for ClamAV 3.0 for Windows, which the company says "includes full integration of the...
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Uh oh big fella, did you jump the gun on a smartphone this past holiday shopping season thinking that the Verizon iPhone 4 rumors would never come true? If you did, and assuming you were interested in the iPhone 4 to begin with, then you're probably left with a serious case of buyer's remorse...
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