Say “hello” to the Panasonic Strada (it rhymes with “yo mama” and means “street” in I-talian), otherwise known by its catchier model number: The CN-NVD905U. The in-dash HDD mobile navigation system (professional installers only, please) is the first Panasonic navigation system to reach the U.S. and was designed specifically for the North American/U.S. market. (According to the presentation we were given, no self-respecting cabby in Japan would be caught dead without a Panny in the dash.)
The unit features a 7-inch touch-panel display giving you complete access to navigation and multimedia with giant, colorful icons helping even the biggest dolts most novice users get to their destination. A built-in 30GB hard drive holds your maps for U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico (sorry, Mexico), detailed maps of 86 cities and 12 million points of interest (POI), which gets you your gas stations, restaurants, ATMs, etc., etc.
There is full iPod integration, which worked nicely, giving you full control of the player for both audio and video playback. You can get add-ons for it, too, for satellite radio (XM and Sirius), Bluetooth and a rear-view camera. This kind of fun doesn’t come cheap, though; the main unit costs $1,799. But hey, once it’s installed you can sign up for Club Strada, a social-networking site for Strada owners. Uh huh.
You can hit the jumps for some more images of the GUI or head to the site for more details.
This was the setup they had going at the demo. Basically, you can control your iPod through the touchscreen GUI.
The aforementioned touchscreen GUI for accessing your iPod’s music. Woohoo!
You want POI? Panasonic’s got your POI right here.
Use a phone number to find an address to get directions. Just punch in the number and let Strada do the heavy lifting.
Get your multimedia on. So, along with iPod controls, you get access to radio, music on CD/DVD (support for WMA and MP3), DVD Video playback as well as video from your iPod.