14 DAY TRIAL // Verizon customers that bought themselves a Palm Pre Plus smartphone, have long battled a weird issue that limited their use of the GPS built-in receiver. Basically, no third-party application that would require the use of GPS localization would work on the Palm Pre Plus. The issue may have multiple causes, but the main problem is the fact that the smartphone features an aGPS, which can only be accessed by VZ Navigator application through Verizon's proprietary aGPS system.
Palm Pre Plus owners had to open VZ Navigator application first in card view and then open the third-party application that want to use. This will make the localization process faster, but requires that VZ Nav to be open all the time. Even with this temporary solution, the pinpoint is not that fast and accurate as it is when using only VZ Nav application.
Fortunately, after numerous discussions and feedback, webOS developer James Harris, creator of Flashcards, managed to come up with an application that fixes this problem. GPS Fix, keeps Verizon's GPS alive by continually pinging it. Users can set a certain pinging frequency (5, 10, 15 min), so they can use the GPS with other third-party applications. The software has been tested on a few localization apps such as Minimap and Navit and it did exactly what it supposed.
Even though, the application is free there's also a downside to this, as the impact on the battery's life will be greater the more frequent the pings will be. GPS Fix is still in its Beta stage, so heavy feedback is expected from Palm Pre Plus users, especially regarding the battery life issue. The application is available in 8 countries, and can be downloaded here.