The Pit

Gizmos Galore At Wow! Gadgets

BY Burnpavement

Looking for nice accessories for your car? Here's one that will satisfy all your needs.

Three years ago, a budding motoring enthusiast with a strong interest in electronic gadgets set up a small online shop. Called Wow! Gadgets, it was one of the successful businesses that had flourished from a small eBay page.

A year later, the company started to focus on marketing and distributing unique car gadgets such as OEM head unit upgrades, vehicle black boxes, security alarms, Bluetooth car kits and more.

Look out for more information on how to win yourself a Black Vue Vehicle Black box on the Wow! Gadgets Facebook page.

With increased demand for their products, the online store eventually evolved into a physical shop located along Geylang Lorong 11 that is capable of housing four cars at any time. This is also when Wow! Gadgets begun to distribute their products to their dealers. With a brick-and-mortar store in its place, the original online shop has ceased all sales operations, but it has been revamped to reflect the company's new corporate image as well as showcase the full product range.

In 2011, Wow! Gadgets is looking at expanding their network of dealers, with other car accessories and workshops approaching them with the interest of carrying their products. They are also in partnership with Aestmod Auto to provide exterior accessories and modifications. With a target of at least 15 dealers across Singapore by 2011, expect to find cool gadgets such as the smartCARD Advanced Keyless Security, hapticSTART Engine Touch Start System and other unique products showing up in your favourite accessory shops!

Having a look at their line-up, here are three gadgets that got us interested. First off, is the smartCARD Advanced Keyless Security, that features a door open warning and immobilizer. While these features are available on premium cars, this system can be fitted on any car, and gives the user the option to deactivate the passive keyless entry mode at the touch of a button. Passive Keyless Entry is a very popular feature where doors will be unlocked automatically when the driver approaches the vehicle, and the car will be locked automatically when the driver leaves the vehicle's vicinity. All these are made possible when you arm yourself with a smartCARD two thirds the size of a credit card with a thickness of only six millimetres.

Another feature found on technologically more advanced cars these days, is the engine start button. The hapticSTART button fits over the original keyhole of any car and it gives a vibrating feedback when touched. Yes, it is a touch button and not the ordinary push button! It only responds to human touch to prevent accidental activation. With three different LED colours, all it takes is a glance to tell the status, be it alarm arm/disarm or the position of the ignition key.

Last but not the least, we introduce the Black Vue, a "black box" camera which can be quickly unclipped from its mount and removed from the car for security purposes. The camera can be deployed for surveillance use with its unique automatic "Parking mode". The camera monitors visual movements or physical impacts and saves up to 30 seconds of pre-recorded video before and after detection.