Windows 8/RT App Updates: Bing Weather

Following in the footsteps of five other Bing app updates by two weeks, the Weather app that ships with Windows 8 and RT was updated this week to include a number of additional new features. As is the case with the previous Bing apps updates, this is a case of a good app getting even better.

Microsoft updated the Bing Finance, Maps, News, Sports and Travel apps two weeks ago as discussed in Windows 8/RT App Updates: Bing Apps. At the time, an update to the Weather app was expected but not released. This week, we final see that update.

Key updates to this release of the Weather app include:

10 days of detailed weather forecasts hour by hour. The previous version of the app showed only 5 days.

Updates to historical weather information.

Additional information including sunrise/sunset.

New weather background images.

Performance enhancements.

Get Started pane. As with some other recent app updates, like News, Weather now provides a handy Get Started pane that helps you figure out how to best use the app.

App bar improvement. Weather’s app bar now includes new weather maps and ski resorts.

Additional advertising. Microsoft controversially includes advertising in its Bing apps, the first time Windows has ever shipped with ads, a change that I find cheapens the OS. Now there are more ads than ever in Bing Weather. Hooray.

Note: Some features and enhancements may not be available in all markets.

You can download the new Weather app from the Windows Store.