Windows 95 on the Apple Watch features the world’s most twee Start button

Big, complex things running on tiny things is a common theme this week. Earlier we had a hack that put Counter-Strike on Android Wear, and today some maniac has installed Windows 95 on his Apple Watch. At last it’ll do something worthwhile! That is, of course, if you can find the Start button.

Nick Lee of Tendigi Insights is behind this absurd and hilarious endeavor. He appears to be a natural joker: he it was who snuck a flashlight app into the App Store with a hidden tethering tool. And amazingly, it was I who wrote that up 6 years ago.

When you think about it, the Apple Watch is massively more powerful than pretty much any computer that was running 95 back in the day. So it should be able to handle the classic OS with ease, right? Well, it’s not that simple.

Apple Watch isn’t exactly an open system. It’s not like you can boot into the command line, format, and pop a new OS on there. That would be way too easy. But the difficulty of a thing is often positively correlated with the desire of developers to achieve it — with a scalar modifier based on stubbornness and an exponential multiplier for nostalgia.

It seems there’s a way to get a WatchKit app to load arbitrary code, even if that code happens to be a port of a port of an x86 emulator apparently held together with chewing gum and a desperate prayer. (it’s on GitHub)

Windows 95, 8 GB of storage and half a gig of RAM is an embarrassment of riches. It’s an embarrassment of riches. Only problem is, you’re not going to get the cycles you’d like out of that 520Mhz processor, since it’s an emulator, not a virtual machine.

Result: Lee had to affix a tiny motor to the crown to spin it constantly during the hour-longboot process.

But once that’s done, you’ve got a Windows 95 machine on your wrist! If you don’t mind it running at approximately 2% speed and controlling the cursor with dozens of tiny finger movements, you can play Minesweeper on the subway — ad-free, and you don’t even need your iPhone around!

Congratulations to Nick Lee for making my Friday — this is magnificently dumb.

Microsoft Band 3: Specs, features, release date and price rumors

ere has been much talk about the Microsoft Band 3 release date. Expected in October 2016, the new fitness band is hoped to bring some necessary improvements, based on the user feedback that Microsoft encourages. The company runs a 'UserVoice' page where users can freely voice their opinions and share ideas on improvements in Microsoft's Health App and Band.

Last year, the Microsoft Band 2 was made available for purchase in November for a price of $249 and has been in stores for a little over four months now. It currently retails on Microsoft's online store for a limited time discounted price of $175 and can be purchased from other sources too.

Intex launches fitness band FitRist, priced at Rs 999

We expect to see the Microsoft Band v3 released at around the same price as theBand 2, considering the company slashed its prices by $75 in a matter of 5 months. That would mean the upcoming Band 3 will cost you approximately $250 to $300.

Among the improvements we expect to see will be rumoured waterproofing for the armband, the ability to monitor heart rate accurately and probably on a separate tile with cohesive information, an indication of battery life on the screen and the option to have an emergency medical tile.

Meet Microsoft's new fitness tracker, Band 2

Users have requested Microsoft to release a waterproof armband since its first iteration which Microsoft has alleged been working on since 2014 when it filed a patent for a fluid-proof battery housing with the United States Patent Application Office.

Most other expected improvements can be rolled out by Microsoft with UX updates to the Band 2. Whether or not they will really launch Microsoft Band 3 this October is yet to be seen.

Microsoft Office 2016 release date, price, news and features

Windows 10 has and continues to grab a huge deal of attention, generating a growing media interest, particularly since this is a vital operating system to get right for Redmond given the (relative) failure of Windows 8 (and RT) and the timid reception for Windows 8.1.

• Check our review of Office 2016 here

However, let's not forget that Microsoft has another major cash cow, Office, which has been gradually transformed from a Windows-centric productivity suite of five core products into a vibrant ecosystem of applications, many of them web-based (welcome to the world of SaaS).

In Microsoft's own words, this time around, the company has reimagined the traditional Office experience for a mobile-first, cloud-first world – one where a client-centric Office 2016 is expected to play an increasingly lesser role compared to Office 365 and Office 2013.

Cut to the chase

What is it? It is the new version of Office, the first one that is designed and built from the ground-up for mobile and cloud.

When will it release? Office 2016 has been launched on September 22.

What will it cost? The suite will be free for consumers on mobile devices and smaller tablets (with limitations, mind you), and probably as cheap as £95 (around $145, AU$185) for a likely "Office Home & Student 2016" edition, though the RRP of the 2013 version of this flavour is £110 (around $165, AU$215), with the subscription version of the suite (Office 365 Personal) running to £60 (or $70, which is around AU$90) per year.

What's the latest?

Since the launch of Office 2016 (the one at the time of publishing is 16.0.4229.1021) on Windows Preview earlier this year, more than one million customers have used it across both Windows and Mac platforms according to Microsoft and that has been followed by a number of updates including:

• Real Time Presence in word
• Simplified file sharing
• Insights (powered by Bing) in Office
• Version History improvements
• Improved grammar checker
• Improved Power Pivot improvements

It will still be best suited to a PC with a keyboard and mouse, a setup that Microsoft seems to believe is the best way to achieve optimal productivity.

Samsung Galaxy S7 review, news, price, specs and features

The long-awaited Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge have finally arrived — and they’re everything we hoped they would be. Announced at MWC 2016 in Barcelona, Samsung has again released two variants of the S7 — both similar at the core, but with a few subtle differences. Last year’s Samsung offering was a big one with theGalaxy S6 and S6 edge, and this time around Samsung has made its 2016 phones even better than ever before.

Last year with the GS6, Samsung dropped both the S6 proper and S6 edge at the same time, while the S6 edge+ came along a bit later. The design of the S6 was totally different from that of the previous years S5. Gone was the cheaper-looking plastic, here now was a solid glass and metal design.

This time around, Samsung has announced two variants of the S7, in two different sizes, right from the start. Both carry on with the metal and glass design of the GS6, with a few major updates. The S7 proper rings in at 5.1-inches, and the slightly larger — but otherwise quite the same — S7 edge at 5.5-inches. Both S7 variants are packed with features that include a microSD card slot, bigger battery, refreshed camera and even waterproofing.

Here's everything you need to know:

Samsung Galaxy S7 Review

It's not all that often we can recommend a phone without any real hesitation. The Galaxy S7 is one of those. Samsung has improved on most of our complaints from the Galaxy S6 era. Battery life is improved. Not great, but adequate. The overall design is better and less slippery, and it takes a case well without becoming too large. The display size hits that 5.1-inch sweet spot. The fingerprint feature is excellent.

And while we're a little back-and-forth on the camera, that's because Samsung is among the manufacturers that we tend to hold to a higher standard in that regard. The Galaxy S7 camera should, in any event, serve you just fine.