Their identities were being withheld pending notification of their family members. (thebronxchronicle.com)
First, if there are pending notifications for several Live tiles, we will now update them in one quick sweep across the Start screen rather than one at a time. (blogs.windows.com)
Basically, this a quick way to see pending notifications (aside from using the notification bar, of course) on home screen icons — as long as you're using the default launcher. (howtogeek.com)