In my android application which uses GPS, I have UI elemnts that should blink permanently. I was told after a couple of pilot runs that the blinking GPS icon, i.e. when GPS is actually trying to get a fix, steals completely unnecessary bit of user's attention from the main UI.

Is there a way to remove the GPS antenna icon from the status bar programmatically from within the application? Or, alternatively, make it never blink?

Thanks!