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There are a lot of cool changes coming to the next update of Google Plus for Android which should be rolling out this week.  Google’s Luke Wroblewski posted on his Google+ profile some of the changes that are coming in version 7.0.0 of the app.  As he put in his post, this includes two of the most requested Android fixes so he and the team are certainly listening to users of the new-and-improved Google+.

Specific to what is being addressed in the update, Luke outlines them in his post and provided a great infographic which I have linked to after the break.

• 69 bugs fixed
• 14 accessibility issues addressed
• Automatically hide the bottom tab bar when scrolling (note: not on Notifications screen yet)
• The home stream now remembers your position when you return to it (after going to a different screen like Notifications)
• Search now displays autocomplete suggestions as you type
• If you have no Collections or Communities visible on your profile, we include a prompt for you to add one

That’s a huge number of fixes and improvements that users can expect to see when the update comes out via an OTA update.

Like many of you who are reading this, I spend a good portion of my day listening to podcasts.  Whether it is news, information or simply a bit of relaxing fun, podcasts are a part of my routine that I would sorely miss if it were not there.  The challenge is finding a podcast app that works across my devices yet gives me a lot of power to control when content is downloaded, when it is streamed and equally as important, when it is cleaned off my device after I’m done watching or listening.  For me, Pocket Casts from Shifty Jelly is the go-to app.

Featuring a wealth of content, Pocket Casts works on my Android phones and tablets and allows me to synchronize my content so I can keep all of them up-to-date with my latest podcasts.  I can listen or watch podcasts directly from within the app and when I am done, the app has an automatic clean up that deletes it from all of my devices so I’m not taking up storage space on content I’ve consumed.  I have been using the app for about a month now and having tried many of the podcasts apps in the Google Play Store, this is the one that quickly became and continues to be the benchmark for such apps.  At $3.99 for the Android version, it isn’t the cheapest podcast app available but I think it is one of the best and well worth the price.

Pocket Casts – $3.99 – Download Now

Google has dropped the price of the Nexus 5X by $30 at the Google Store, bringing the mid-market phone down to $349 for the 16GB model.  The 32GB model also dropped by $30 to $399.  The price change is a permanent change.

When the 5X was released back in September, many question the price point of the device for the specs it offered.  Google, it would seem, has heard this and had introduced this price reduction.  At this new price point, the Nexus 5X is really hard to beat and it comes with Android Marshmallow already installed so there are no upgrade challenges for this device.

Nexus 5X – Starting at $349 – Google Store

For those of you who are LG G4 owners on US Cellular here in the United States, today is a good day!  The 5th largest mobile carrier has released the Android Marshmallow update for the G4 today, bringing with it all of the goodies that it contains.  The update brings your device to v6.0 and follows in a long line of devices and cellular updates to devices over the course of the past few months.

If you by chance have not read anything on Marshmallow, take a look at my review for all the highlights but it is sufficient to say that this update is well worth the time and effort to get on to your phone.