Earlier this evening I attended the Zara South Africa launch in Sandton City, which makes it the 80th country that Zara has expanded into. It is also one of the largest stores worldwide and covers more than 2,700 square meters; and has a nice airy feel to it. 

If you’ve never been to a Zara store before, you will absolutely love how each rack has matching accessories to go with the look you want: shoes, handbags, scarves, etc. What you will love even more is the pricing – vests from R79, t-shirts from R99, jeggings from R299, jeans from R349, dresses from R499 and loads more. No more paying almost triple that price for jeans!

*EDIT* – The store includes women’s, men’s and kids wear. 

Here are some pics from the store (taken on my phone).

Studio line (pink shoes displayed on the top made exclusively for Johannesburg/South Africa):

Zara is open to the public from tomorrow, 10 November, in the new extension of Sandton City (upper level, by the Woolworths).

Happy shopping!

LG South Africa invited me to attend the LG Blogger Forum 2010, held in Berlin. It was a group of about 24 of us from South America, Europe, Middle East, Asia and Africa. The Africa quota was filled by 1 South African; me.

We stayed at The Steigenberger Hotel, where the presentation and explanation of products took place. We were then transported to the LG booth at IFA 2010 (one of the largest consumer electronics shows in Europe).

The lot of us were split into groups and given an opportunity to show off our 3D skills: taking pics with a 3D camera while keeping a “borderless” theme in mind.

Although my team did not win, we did have a wonderful time making 3D content. The only downside was that the pics could only be viewed on the camera (or a 3D TV if you have one) as 3D.

We were introduced to LG’s new line-up of TV’s: LEX8, LX9500 and LX9900. LG said by 2011 it wants to introduce nano LED technology to all their TV models, and eventually, the ability to connect to mobile devices.

The LEX8 is the slimmest LED TV ever made at just 8.8mm and a 1.25cm bezel.

The arrangement of LED’s are different in a nano screen than a normal LED screen. “Lighting technology with full LED enables a smoother, more refined picture quality by evenly spreading of the light from the LEDs. It’s brighter, but softer on the eyes.”

We were given a sneak peak of LG’s Real 3D sound home cinema, which offers a “perfect 3D experience”.

This means that speakers have a vertical 3D effect channel for vertical sound movement. It also features dual subwoofers for a more powerful and deeper bass. It also has a cinema dome effect, which means that wherever you sit, you will feel as if you are sitting in the centre of the room. They hope to launch this by Feb 2011.

I took a video of the coolest thing I saw at the LG booth – OLED TV:

Keep an eye out in the My Digital Life newsletter on Tuesday, 7 September for more information.

I fetched my world cup tickets earlier today (in case you missed my Twitter and Facebook updates ), and I remember someone asking me how the name change would work if tickets get re-sold, etc, I can’t remember who.

From my understanding, the main applicant needs to present their ID at the stadium and can bring whomever they want as a guest, (if you fetched your tickets already, you will notice only the main applicant’s name appears on all tickets). If the main applicant cannot attend, and wants to sell it or give it to family/friends, they will need to sign an affidavit (really) along with a certified copy of their ID.

Fifa, keeping it real.

I recently came across the Wikipedia entry of Ayrton Senna, the deceased Brazilian F1 driver. While I’m no F1 fan, I found what I read to be very interesting, yet very sad. I’ve never really been “touched” / fascinated by a person who I barely knew existed until recently, to the extent that I started searching for a book on his life story.

This blog post is not about the driver, but a comparison of what I found online. I just thought I’d share this info. The book isn’t available locally – well not physically at CNA or Exclusive Books but I found it on kalahari.net:

as well as Exclusive Books online:

I called Exclusive Books and they told me it will take 6 – 8 weeks, yet their site says 10-15 working days but that’s not the point. Take a look at the pricing! Where is the consistency? Why are we being ripped off? Okay, that’s a stupid question.

I’m glad kalahari.net is having a sale and I hope the book arrives by next week Friday.

Moral of the story, shop around. Don’t let yourself get ripped off.

PS Can you tell that I have too much free time on my hands lately?

You might wonder why the comparison. These two products are hardly in the same category. But I think one might just put the other out of business. Given the state of the current economy, I don’t see consumers rushing out to buy laptops or notebooks. There have been reports that the netbook market is soaring and sales will grow by 65% this year. At the same time Nokia’s earnings have dropped in the first quarter of this year to €122 million, compared to last years €1.2 billion, during the same period.

Statistics aside, smart phones are now being created to give you the ultimate browsing experience. That’s what the touch-screen Nokia N97 promises. You can customize the phone’s home screen with widgets, watch high-quality movies, browse ‘real’ web pages etc. But what about the price tag that comes with a high-end phone like this? I’m not talking about business men and women who need these devices or the super rich. I’m talking about middle class working citizens who save up, look what the market has to offer, make comparisons and then decide what to go with.

Put yourself in this scenario – would you spend ± 6k on a cellphone and browse the web on a 3.5″ screen or spend about ± 4k and browse the internet on a 9″ screen, with full qwerty keyboard (98%)? It’s not a difficult decision.

The current mobile market is very competitive. It’s not like a few years ago where you knew exactly what phone you were getting. Now all phones offer the same features – so what do you go for?

I’ve reached a point where I don’t go for the phone that has all the coolest features. I’m not big on a GPS merged into a phone. (I think the two devices should remain separate). You can’t put everything onto a cell/smart phone. What happens if you get a call while your phone is taking you to your next destination of if you are recording an interview and your phone starts ringing? What about battery life?

I think if the average consumer is opting for a netbook, chances are he won’t be spending ± 6k on a smartphone.

Oh, I’d be lying if I said I don’t want to get my hands on the Nokia N97. Perhaps Nokia will let me play with one

Last week I attended a media briefing where results from a study of digital lifestyles on South African consumers were presented. It is the first time such an indepth study within SA was conducted. I found it quite interesting because I lead a very ‘digital’ lifestyle. I rather spend money on electronic goods / gadgets than make up, jewellery or clothes.

Those surveyed earn above R 8 000 and live in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town and Durban. Basically, those earning less than R 8 000 were not leading the digital lifestyle and it didnt make sense for them to be surveyed.

Candidates were questioned on their internet activities, digital products, cellular / mobile activities. Based on the results, they were classified using the ‘Digital Lifestyle Measure’ (DLM). The classification, based on the score, was then divided into 4 groups (DLM1 – DLM4). Digital products like cellphones, flat screen TVs, camera’s, laptops etc were used to score points and more points were awarded for uncommon technologies.

Fewer digital goods mean you fall under DLM1-DLM2 and average would be between DLM2-DLM3, while above average DLM3-DLM4.

These were some of the results:

• The most common form of communication in SA is Mxit
• More than half of IM users are in the 16-24 age bracket and use IM everyday
• Mobile IM has more than doubled in the last 12 months.
• The percentage of registered Facebook users decreased with age, except for the oldest age group (45 and over).

The study also concluded that the higher the consumer DLM, the earlier they registered on Facebook.

The Digital Lifestyle predictor is an ongoing study.

Mxit was just fortunate they came out at the right time. I dont think (if they have competition out there) that anyone can take over easily. I’m not a Mxit fan, I find that its more for tweens / teens or people who are still dating and of course people who are bored in their current relationships.

Originally blogged on My Digital Life.