Clarion Ships Nav System

By Amy Gilroy -- TWICE, 12/4/2006

Gardena, Calif. — Clarion is now shipping an in-dash video/monitor with an outboard navigation system that includes a 30GB hard drive and is one of the fastest GPS units in terms of route calculations, said the company.

The double-DIN DVD/monitor, model Max675VD, works with a black-box navigation piece called the Nax970HD. The black box includes a 30GB hard drive with preloaded maps of the United States and Canada and 9 million points of interest.

Clarion said it emphasized an easy user interface on the device. Users can search for points of interest by ZIP code, phone number or address, and they can use the touch screen to swipe a finger down the screen to move to the next screen.

The DVD/monitor uses a 7-inch screen and can play back video from an iPod as well as control audio from an iPod, with a $49 adapter.

Originally previewed at International CES last year, the Max675VD and Nax970HD have a suggested retails of $1,199 each with expected street prices of $999 each.

The Nax970HD can be upgraded, and Clarion plans to add other technologies to it in the future, it said.