Mavizon Mavia links your car to your phone and the cloud

Roadtrippers with a smartphone, pay attention – because Mavia, a new gadget from Mavizon can turn your car and phone into a super-connected cloud enabled engine monitoring tool.

Mavia consists of a special OBD-II (On Board Diagnostics) dongle, mobile apps and an online portal. Every car produced since 1996 has one of these ports, making the product very easy to install.

The product offers many of the same features found in that other famous connected car service that rhymes with “schmon-star” – which means Mavia can send out alerts if you have been in an accident, track the location of your vehicle, perform online diagnostics and even send you service coupons for discounts on maintenance.

Mavia is not yet available for purchase, but it has created enough of a buzz to win first place at this years iStage at the Consumer Electronics Show. To use Mavizon, you can use any mobile phone with an Internet browser, or access the information through dedicated iPhone or Android apps.

If you’d like to learn more about the product, or think you have what it takes to become a beta tester, head on over to Mavizontech and fill in the beta application. A nationwide test of the product starts by early Spring 2011.

Lemur Monitors SafeDriver and EconoDriver add safety and fuel economy on the cheap

Since not all travel involves jets and turboprops, adding technology to vehicles to make the drive more safe or efficient is high on my list of products I keep a close eye on. Two of those products come from Lemur Vehicle Monitors. The first of their newest lineup is excellent for parents that hand over the car keys to a teenager, and worry that the speed limit will be ignored.

The $69.95 SafeDriver plugs into the vehicle data port, and a compact keychain data receiver records the maximum speed, distance traveled and any sudden brakes. With this plugged in, and the knowledge that technology is keeping an eye on them, teenage drivers should be more aware that they can’t get away with everything they want.

The second product is geared towards those of us that want to become more efficient drivers, and save some gas on a road trip. The $79.95 EconoDriver module plugs into the car data port, and its receiver displays your fuel economy green rating, miles per gallon and the price of gas used. Since the data comes directly from your car, this information is very accurate.

Both products are available directly from Lemur Monitors or at your local Brookstone.