Kevin Purdy /

Senior Technology Reporter

Kevin is a senior technology reporter at Ars Technica, covering open-source software, PC gaming, home automation, repairability, e-bikes, and tech history. He started his writing career as a newspaper reporter, covering business, crime, and other topics. Kevin has written about technology and computing for more than 15 years, having previously worked at tech and productivity blog Lifehacker, product recommendation site Wirecutter, repair advocate and vendor iFixit, and home energy and climate site Carbon Switch. He graduated from the University at Buffalo, and lives in Washington, D.C., where he bikes, bakes, and makes passable espresso. Kevin is occasionally on Mastodon.

Recent stories by Kevin Purdy

Major outages at CrowdStrike, Microsoft leave the world with BSODs and confusion

Nobody's sure who's at fault for each outage: Microsoft, CrowdStrike, or both.

Kevin Purdy – Jul 19, 2024 1:22 pm UTC

485
Gazelle Eclipse C380+ e-bike review: A smart, smooth ride at a halting price

It's a powerful, comfortable, fun, and very smart ride. Is that enough?

Kevin Purdy – Jul 19, 2024 11:00 am UTC

124
Google, its cat fully escaped from bag, shows off the Pixel 9 Pro weeks early

Upcoming phone is teased with an AI breakup letter to "the same old thing."

Kevin Purdy – Jul 18, 2024 6:36 pm UTC

83
The next Nvidia driver makes even more GPUs “open,” in a specific, quirky way

You can't see inside the firmware, but more open code can translate it for you.

Kevin Purdy – Jul 18, 2024 5:34 pm UTC

38
Real, actual Markdown support is arriving in Google Docs, not a moment too soon

It's a big day for typing in plain-text fashion, for the good of syntax.

Kevin Purdy – Jul 17, 2024 5:40 pm UTC

71
All four of Google’s Pixel 9 phones get lined up and shot (by regulators)

A taller Pixel Fold, a "small Pro" Pixel 9, and lots more early details.

Kevin Purdy – Jul 16, 2024 9:55 pm UTC

71
Full dev build of Space Marine 2 leaks, and players are already leveling up

Developers canceled a beta test—but may have gotten one anyway.

Kevin Purdy – Jul 16, 2024 6:07 pm UTC

44
Arduino’s Plug and Make Kit lets your hacking imagination run wild, sans solder

Daisy-chain tiny boards into weather stations, game controllers, and way more.

Kevin Purdy – Jul 12, 2024 3:56 pm UTC

45
Galaxy Z Fold & Z Flip 6, Watch Ultra, and new Ring are Samsung’s AI carriers

Samsung's spec-bump products get coated in Galaxy AI lacquer for their showing.

Kevin Purdy – Jul 10, 2024 2:59 pm UTC

61
Samsung’s abandoned NX cameras can be brought online with a $20 LTE stick

All it took was a reverse-engineered camera firmware and a custom API rewrite.

Kevin Purdy – Jul 9, 2024 5:27 pm UTC

32
Massive car dealer ransom attack is mostly over after 2 weeks of work-arounds

CDK outage likely slumped June auto sales, may have cost more than $600M.

Kevin Purdy – Jul 8, 2024 6:57 pm UTC

94
Apple’s “Longevity, by Design” argues its huge scale affects its repair polices

Apple must consider volume, but also the world outside its closed loop.

Kevin Purdy – Jun 27, 2024 4:25 pm UTC

156
VW puts $5B into cash-hungry Rivian, and Rivian will help fix up VW’s software

Rivian gets a third major partner, and new cars arrive later this decade.

Kevin Purdy – Jun 26, 2024 4:07 pm UTC

164
The math on unplayed Steam “shame” is way off—and no cause for guilt

It's fun to speculate, but sales and library quirks make it impossible to know.

Kevin Purdy – Jun 25, 2024 6:06 pm UTC

160
Larry Finger made Linux wireless work and brought others along to learn

Remembering Finger, 84, who learned as he went and left his mark on many.

Kevin Purdy – Jun 24, 2024 7:21 pm UTC

50
40 years later, X Window System is far more relevant than anyone could guess

One astrophysics professor's memories of writing X11 code in the 1980s.

Kevin Purdy – Jun 21, 2024 7:47 pm UTC

157
Single point of software failure could hamstring 15K car dealerships for days

"Cyber incident" affecting 15K dealers could mean outages "for several days."

Kevin Purdy – Updated Jun 20, 2024 4:03 pm UTC

142
Fisker is out of cash, not making cars, and filing for bankruptcy

No word on parts, warranty, or, most crucially, software updates in the future.

Kevin Purdy – Jun 18, 2024 8:53 pm UTC

239
Reports: Apple is halting its next high-end Vision in favor of something cheaper

Finding a lower-price replacement for its high-end displays could be difficult.

Kevin Purdy – Jun 18, 2024 6:29 pm UTC

166
Shadow of the Erdtree has ground me into dust, which is why I recommend it

Souls fans seeking real challenge should love it. Casuals like me might wait.

Kevin Purdy – Jun 18, 2024 2:01 pm UTC

65
Proton is taking its privacy-first apps to a nonprofit foundation model

Because of Swiss laws, there are no shareholders, and only one mission.

Kevin Purdy – Jun 17, 2024 4:40 pm UTC

113
Give yourself a day to tackle all your recommendation and subscription guilt

Opinion: It never ends, but you can triage and help out your favorite creators.

Kevin Purdy – Jun 14, 2024 3:42 pm UTC

56
The rent is too dang high in Cities: Skylines 2, so the devs nuked the landlords

It was getting so bad, people were actually suggesting building more homes.

Kevin Purdy – Updated Jun 13, 2024 8:13 pm UTC

113
Roku owners face the grimmest indignity yet: Stuck-on motion smoothing

Software updates strike again, leaving interpolated frames in unwanted places.

Kevin Purdy – Jun 12, 2024 9:13 pm UTC

263
Tenways CGO800S review: More utility than bike, but maybe that’s OK

It's not cargo, it's not aero; it's just a bike for comfortably going places.

Kevin Purdy – Jun 12, 2024 6:12 pm UTC

77
One of the major sellers of detailed driver behavioral data is shutting down

Selling "hard braking event" data seems less lucrative after public outcry.

Kevin Purdy – Jun 12, 2024 5:57 pm UTC

203
iOS 18 adds Apple Intelligence, customizations, and makes Android SMS nicer

Mail gets categories, Messages gets more tapbacks, and apps can now be locked.

Kevin Purdy – Jun 10, 2024 5:47 pm UTC

132
Marvel’s Midnight Suns is free right now, and you should grab it (even on Epic)

Sadly overlooked on release, the card/turn-based battler is a real bargain.

Kevin Purdy – Jun 7, 2024 7:32 pm UTC

113
Brompton C Line Electric review: Fun and foldable, fits better than you’d think

A motor evens out its natural disadvantages, but there's still a learning curve.

Kevin Purdy – Jun 7, 2024 11:00 am UTC

86
Watch a 6-axis motor solve a Rubik’s Cube in less than a third of a second

Getting an AI to distinguish red from orange was a major challenge.

Kevin Purdy – Jun 6, 2024 7:20 pm UTC

76
What kind of bug would make machine learning suddenly 40% worse at NetHack?

One day, a roguelike-playing system just kept biffing it, for celestial reasons.

Kevin Purdy – Jun 4, 2024 6:52 pm UTC

52
Ridiculous, inventive party pack Sportsfriends is now free on PC and PlayStation

Couch co-op collection lets you compete on the screen and in each other's face.

Kevin Purdy – Jun 3, 2024 6:24 pm UTC

12
TinyPod wants to turn Apple Watches into minimalist phones that feel like iPods

Creator shares price and design details, and mission to help people disconnect.

Kevin Purdy – May 29, 2024 7:22 pm UTC

96
Bungie wins landmark suit against Destiny 2 cheat-maker AimJunkies

Three-year suit had claims of hidden crypto, fake Ukrainians, counter-hacking.

Kevin Purdy – May 28, 2024 7:55 pm UTC

61
The ROG Ally X leaks, with twice the battery of the original and way more RAM

This handheld has more RAM than my gaming PC, though the chip stays the same.

Kevin Purdy – May 24, 2024 3:44 pm UTC

99
Bing outage shows just how little competition Google search really has

Opinion: Actively searching without Google or Bing is harder than it looks.

Kevin Purdy – May 23, 2024 8:01 pm UTC

144

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Kevin Purdy /

Recent stories by Kevin Purdy

Major outages at CrowdStrike, Microsoft leave the world with BSODs and confusion

Gazelle Eclipse C380+ e-bike review: A smart, smooth ride at a halting price

Google, its cat fully escaped from bag, shows off the Pixel 9 Pro weeks early

The next Nvidia driver makes even more GPUs “open,” in a specific, quirky way

Real, actual Markdown support is arriving in Google Docs, not a moment too soon

All four of Google’s Pixel 9 phones get lined up and shot (by regulators)

Full dev build of Space Marine 2 leaks, and players are already leveling up

Arduino’s Plug and Make Kit lets your hacking imagination run wild, sans solder

Galaxy Z Fold & Z Flip 6, Watch Ultra, and new Ring are Samsung’s AI carriers

Samsung’s abandoned NX cameras can be brought online with a $20 LTE stick

Massive car dealer ransom attack is mostly over after 2 weeks of work-arounds

Apple’s “Longevity, by Design” argues its huge scale affects its repair polices

VW puts $5B into cash-hungry Rivian, and Rivian will help fix up VW’s software

The math on unplayed Steam “shame” is way off—and no cause for guilt

Larry Finger made Linux wireless work and brought others along to learn

40 years later, X Window System is far more relevant than anyone could guess

Single point of software failure could hamstring 15K car dealerships for days

Fisker is out of cash, not making cars, and filing for bankruptcy

Reports: Apple is halting its next high-end Vision in favor of something cheaper

Shadow of the Erdtree has ground me into dust, which is why I recommend it

Proton is taking its privacy-first apps to a nonprofit foundation model

Give yourself a day to tackle all your recommendation and subscription guilt

The rent is too dang high in Cities: Skylines 2, so the devs nuked the landlords

Roku owners face the grimmest indignity yet: Stuck-on motion smoothing

Tenways CGO800S review: More utility than bike, but maybe that’s OK

One of the major sellers of detailed driver behavioral data is shutting down

iOS 18 adds Apple Intelligence, customizations, and makes Android SMS nicer

Marvel’s Midnight Suns is free right now, and you should grab it (even on Epic)

Brompton C Line Electric review: Fun and foldable, fits better than you’d think

Watch a 6-axis motor solve a Rubik’s Cube in less than a third of a second

What kind of bug would make machine learning suddenly 40% worse at NetHack?

Ridiculous, inventive party pack Sportsfriends is now free on PC and PlayStation

TinyPod wants to turn Apple Watches into minimalist phones that feel like iPods

Bungie wins landmark suit against Destiny 2 cheat-maker AimJunkies

The ROG Ally X leaks, with twice the battery of the original and way more RAM

Bing outage shows just how little competition Google search really has