Many people don't know they are eligible for complimentary Microsoft software and services. You can help spread the word to ensure that people in your community are making the best of what's available to them.
Not-for-profit donations
Microsoft and many other suppliers offer technology donations through TechSoup. Microsoft has donated more than $19,000,000 worth of technology to NZ nonprofits through this programme.
Software startups
Microsoft's BizSpark programme provides complimentary software, cloud services and access to a community of partners around the world who are involved in supporting software-fueled innovation and the next generation of technology entrepreneurs.
Anti-virus software
For home users and small businesses, Microsoft Security Essentials is a complimentary download from Microsoft that is simple to install, easy to use, and is automatically updated to protect Windows PCs with the latest anti-malware technology.
Māori language packs
Complimentary Māori language packs are available for Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office are available to translate commonly-used features, giving people the choice to use the technology in a language that is familiar.
With compliments
Microsoft offers a number of services free of charge to help people live and work a little smarter. Here’s a quick overview of technology to make life a little simpler and more fun. More than a million Kiwis use at least one of these services, and you'll probably find something that's useful for you and your community.
Protect your online safety
For Cyber-Safety Awareness Week this year, we featured top tips to help you keep safer and more secure online.
Children enjoy learning, and today’s ‘digital natives’ use technology to consume more information at a faster pace than ever before. This aptitude makes for an exciting future, but to make the most of our investments in the next generation we must be mindful of the hurdles on the course.
How should we prepare young people for life and work in this new environment? It is not about any given device or a specific curriculum. Although both will play a role, there needs to be a wider debate about the education strategy that will guide these choices.
Certainly, technology can help to bring quality education to everyone. It can foster communication and collaboration among students, teachers, parents, academics and employers. This way, children have unprecedented opportunities to level the playing field, to explore, mentor one another, and be valued contributors to their communities. This requires digital literacy, which encompasses not just technical skills and understanding, but also a consciousness of online safety and cyber citizenship. And to make it work, we must improve the economic and operational efficiencies of education systems.
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Microsoft offers a number of services free of charge to help people live and work a little smarter. Here’s a quick overview of technology to make life a little simpler and more fun.
More than a million Kiwis use at least one of these services. There are probably at least a million more who might like to. We hope you’ll find something that will surprise and delight you.
To make it easier to find what you're interested in, we’ve used the following themes:
It’s an exciting month here at Microsoft as we hold our annual Worldwide Partner Conference which celebrates the businesses who use technology to transform the way our customers work.
This year stood out for showing Kiwi innovation to the world.
Our success depends on the 3,500 business partners and the 29,000 professionals who work in the New Zealand ecosystem around Microsoft services and devices, and this is our chance to connect them to the Microsoft’s leaders and their peers around the world. We were delighted that seventy people from forty organisations flew all the way from New Zealand to Los Angeles this year to join us.
Every year since 1975, New Zealand has marked Māori Language Week, te wiki o te reo Māori. This is a time for all New Zealanders to celebrate te reo Māori (the Māori language) and to use more Māori phrases in everyday life.
Te reo Māori is a unique part of New Zealand culture and one of our three official languages. To mark Māori Language week this year (4 – 10 July), Microsoft New Zealand announced the availability of complimentary Māori language packs for Windows 7 and Office 2010.
The translation builds on the work of the Maori Language Commission and the University of Waikato in previous interpretations for Microsoft XP and Vista, and offers a wider vocabulary and greater accuracy, particularly when it comes to new words describing new innovations and technology. “We found that certain Māori words used in relation to technology didn’t always capture the true spirit of the English word, so we’ve developed and adapted words that are becoming increasing adopted,” says Wareko Te Āngina, an independent translator who worked as moderator on the project.
The rapid uptake of the next generation of smartphone hardware is providing the platform for new and innovative services. A modern smartphone ships with a complex array of sensors that are capable of pinpointing the phone's location, tracking the rate at which it is moving, and taking high quality digital images of its environment.
Deployment of these phones along with improvements in Internet connectivity and ready availability of cloud computing resources provide ingredients for a period of rapid innovation.