The Palm Pre Plus was recently released as Verizon’s answer to webOS fans not willing to hop on Sprint’s network just for the Palm Pre. The Palm Pre plus looks and performs a lot like its Sprint predecessor, but nixes the home button and adds gobs more RAM. There’s also apparently another difference – the Palm Pre Plus on Verizon is reportedly giving wonky GPS results for some users. The problem arises when trying to the Palm Pre Plus’s GPS feature with any app outside of VZ Navigator – Google Maps, for example.
Some users are posting on PreCentral forums, saying that their Palm Pre Plus is giving some inconsistent location data, if any at all, when trying to get a position-lock in Google Maps. Some report that they are getting inaccurate location data, while others are reporting no GPS signal at all.
There’s talk of Verizon going back to their old ways and locking down the Palm Pre Plus’s GPS receiver to work only with their for-pay VZ Navigator turn-by-turn navigation service. There’s also speculation that the GPS receiver is going into sleep mode, which is preventing the Palm Pre Plus from getting a GPS signal.
But, before you get your tin-foil hat out of your panic room, we don’t think the Verizon GPS conspiracy argument holds water too well. Seeing as how the carrier hasn’t locked down GPS service in other recent smartphones, it’s unlikely that they did so for the Palm Pre Plus. As for the GPS hardware going to sleep, some users have had success in turning off Google Services and GPS, rebooting the phone, and restarting GPS to get Google Maps working with GPS. Others, though, are still frustrated.
Have you been experiencing any wacky GPS performance with your Palm Pre Plus?
[Via: PreCentral]