[GraemeJ]

......  is there some way to stay informed about updates other than the play store (notifications seem hit or miss on this one)

Mike always posts update details on this forum.

On a more general note, it is unwise to have auto-update turned on, especially for softwares (such as this one) which are critical to your work.  Keep auto-update off and only do a manual update when you have the time on-hand to note any possible problems that might arise.  There was a recent example of this very thing, where a lot of users suddenly found MSP wouldn't load after an update.  Mike sorted it very quickly, but it proved that updating immediately before relying on it working is a very bad idea!