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Enlarge / The iPad Air 2 and Mini 4. (credit: Andrew Cunningham)

Apple's beta release of iOS 12.2 continues to deliver possible clues to the tech giant's upcoming devices. A report by MacRumors cites a find by developer Steve Troughton-Smith that references four new iPad models and a new iPod model in the code of the iOS 12.2 developer beta.

All of the new iPads are listed as variants of "iPad11," showing both Wi-Fi and cellular models of the same device. The new iPod in question is dubbed "iPod9," a designation that hasn't been assigned to any existing iPods.

While this doesn't definitively signal new devices, it's bolstered by a move from Apple. The company recently registered seven new iPad models with the Eurasian Economic Commission Database. Those filings don't reveal much information about the unreleased devices, but they lend more credence to the possibility that Apple will release new tablets in the near future.

Enlarge / Google Fiber equipment boxes in a Kansas City home in 2012. (credit: Google Fiber | Bloomberg)

More than two weeks after a snowstorm hit Kansas City, Google Fiber still hasn't restored Internet service to all customers. There were still dozens of Google Fiber customers without home Internet service, a KCUR article published yesterday said. The outage has continued since the storm on January 11 and 12.

Google told Ars on Friday afternoon that the storm affected "thousands" of its customers in the Kansas City area and that it hadn't yet finished restoring service to all of them. "While we can't share exact numbers, at its height, we had thousands of open tickets and are now down to double digits," a Google spokesperson said. "Getting our KC customers back online has been our top priority since the storm hit. We added both crews and equipment to help with this in the city."

Google said that the Kansas City storm was "one of the most significant weather events" to hit any Google Fiber city. "We have learned a lot from our response and will be incorporating those into every aspect of our planning for events like this in the future," the company said.

Enlarge / A screen from Metro: Exodus or an artist's conception of Steam's future storefront if there trends continue?

Update (Feb. 7, 2020): A Steam version of Metro Exodus is now due for release on Feb. 15, precisely one year after it appeared as one of the first big-name exclusives on the Epic Games Store. Other high-profile games launched exclusively on the Epic Games Store last year seem likely to follow suit throughout 2020.

Original Story (Jan. 28, 2019):

Epic Games and Deep Silver announced today that the PC version of Metro Exodus will be downloadable exclusively through Epic's recently launched Game Store starting February 15.

Enlarge / What... what are you doing with that hammer?

Epic Games is getting rid of Fortnite's version of paid, randomized loot boxes with its next update. As of the upcoming Patch 7.30, "Save the World" mode's usual daily randomized offering of a "V-Bucks Llama" will be replaced with a new "X-Ray Llama," which has its contents visible before you buy it.

Players can either purchase those items for 50 V-Bucks (roughly $5, depending on bulk purchase) or wait for the Llama selection to refresh the next day. Similar item-filled llamas earned solely through gameplay will still hold random items. Fortnite's more popular Battle Royale mode does not use paid randomized loot boxes.

"We believe it’s important that the Llamas you buy have what you want, and that you can earn awesome items just for logging in and playing," Epic said in a blog post announcing the move over the weekend.