Since one year ago, Cortana has been displaying weather information on the Live Tile, including current conditions in number form and weather animations. However, back then Cortana would mostly run this feature only in the early morning, as noted in our forums in 2014.
Nevertheless, starting over the weekend, Microsoft evidently has increased the frequency of this feature past the early morning. In fact, it now appears to be the default status tile for Cortana if you have the weather interest enabled.
The feature is rather simple: on one side of the tile is an icon of the current weather, the other side are the current conditions, including location and temperature. It is a nice nod to Cortana's otherwise static tile that only reveals new information if something is breaking. Then again, we imagine some of you may find it redundant if you use another weather app on your Start screen.
'You Be The Judge' in action
Another feature that is now working is You Be the Judge. As we mentioned over the weekend, Bing Predicts is now working with American Idol. If you happen to Bing search that topic, and you have 'You Be the Judge' enabled under Cortana's Interests, you may notice the screen above. It lets you pick whom you think will win the contest making Cortana more interactive.
In the future, we imagine such a tool will be used for larger scale events like the Oscars, Super Bowl, World Series, and other matches with a large interest. Like usual, it is clever and fun.
Belfiore Easter Egg
Finally, there is an Easter Egg that some of us did not know about within Cortana. Evidently, if you ask Cortana "Do you know Joe Belfiore?" she responds with "He's been talking to computers since they spoke BASIC. My kind of guy."
The inside joke was spotted by Shouvik Roy on Twitter, later retweeted by Belfiore himself, completing the joke.
Have you noticed anything else new in Cortana? Let us know in comments.
