Microsoft released a recent preview of the upcoming Windows 10 taskbar that reveals how it expects to present news and weather in the taskbar.
Microsoft is launching 2021 with further user interface updates as it gears up for the major Sun Valley UI update for the 21H2 Windows 10 release.
Last week, the company teased a Windows 10 taskbar widget panel called “News and Interests” in the Windows 10 Insider Dev Channel RS Prerelease ring. Microsoft today announced some changes made to the RS Prerelease ring after getting input from fans who are on the cutting side of Windows 10 previews.
The widget panel includes news and other tidbits customized or switched off and can be reached from the taskbar.
An argument for keeping in mind is that the functionality isn’t guaranteed to exist in the upcoming edition of Windows 10, so if things go well, it’ll presumably show up in Windows 10 21H2. That the tech giant is bothering to show enhancements to the feature bodes well for it.
In addition to weather and news, the panel displays real-time traffic updates and warnings updated during the day.
Maybe with an eye on smartphone-powered vehicle dashboards or even passengers in tomorrow’s stand-alone cars, the feature provides a PC view of Traffic Cards displaying traffic warnings, road cameras, travel times, and surrounding cities with a broader chart.
Microsoft has also been working on changes to the weather for the feature. Present weather reports can be seen in the taskbar, which is changed during the day. Users can see an accurate picture of current weather and temperature at their place if the PC has Wi-Fi plus cellular and GPS. The location of the weather forecast can be changed by pressing the “Edit location” icon.
This feed is likely to be extracted from the Microsoft Web Experiences Team (WebXT), comprising Bing, Edge, MSN, and content services.
Clicking on the Weather Card provides a full-page weather view with temperature, wind, humidity, and rain forecast information up to 10 days in advance.
Thanks to its artificial intelligence, Microsoft is also offering reliable and location-specific weather forecasts.
This functionality is actually only open to a subset of Windows Insiders on the Dev channel to identify consistency and output issues. What consumers see now isn’t exactly what it offers, if the functionality renders it 21H2. Microsoft says it’s aiming to “evolve the experience over time.”
Today, this feature is only open to insiders in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and India. It also includes a compatible version of the Chrome-based Edge browser.
