Develop Reference

android - using AdMob in eclipse

I know there are different questions to this task, but I don't get much information about it.
I found out that AdMob is part of firebase now, but there's a way to use it without firebase. Besides there are no tutorials or information about eclipse - is it necessary to use Android Studio or is it just not documented?

Actually it does not matter if it is part of Firebase, because all of it belongs to the Google Play Services. To get the AdMob classes, you just need to add com.google.android.gms:play-services-ads:10.0.1 to your build.gradle file (see the full list of all possible services here) which already explains your second question.
Android development in Eclipse is not supported any more. There is no Eclipse plugin any more. Google forces you to take Android Studio now.

Is it possible to manage NokiaX and Android source code in the same source control and IDE?

I have several Android apps which I want to upload to Nokia X store.
Some of the apps can run on the phone without any modification needed.
However some of them which used android specific services such as GCM, Google Map needs to be replaced with Nokia Push Service and Nokia Map. (According to the apk test tool)
Now my question is:
is there a way that I can still manage both piece of source code in the same version control repository?
can I configure eclipse to build nokia-x apk or android apk by some configuration?
The reason is 95% of the code are shared. Only GCM and Google Map are handled differently.
It would be a pain if I put them in 2 repositories.

If you check the documentation provided at the nokia site. The OneApk sections for each API would be explaining excat steps to achieve this.

Dr.Jukka has good point as developer.nokia.com documentation is covering this question.
Just to summarize what documentation says:
You should use same source code and even same apk file.
You can runtime-check if here maps are available and based on that select correct MapActivity or MapFragment: http://developer.nokia.com/resources/library/nokia-x/here-maps/one-apk-with-here-maps-and-google-maps.html
You can runtime-check if you should use GCM or Nokia Notifications by trying to use GCM and if it gives UnsupportedOperationException, you can catch that and use Nokia Notifications: http://developer.nokia.com/resources/library/nokia-x/nokia-notifications/one-apk-with-nokia-notifications-and-google-cloud-messaging.html

Mobile Backend Starter Missing from Cloud Console

I wanted to try out cloud-connected Android app as per this tutorial:
https://developers.google.com/cloud/samples/mbs/getting_started
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5u_Owtbfew
However after creating the project in Cloud Console I'm not seeing the panel described in step 6 with a "Deploy" button. https://developers.google.com/cloud/samples/mbs/images/deploy.png
What I'm seeing instead is a dashboard that doesn't mention the Mobile Backend Starter at all. https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1HgSE-zL4aHMDlQTV9PaWswUUE/edit?usp=drivesdk
Is the tutorial not up to date? Where can I find a more recent one?
EDIT: This issue is resolved now - Mobile Backend Starter is available in Cloud Console again. https://plus.google.com/+StevePalacios/posts/i4L1iQ7d2XU

Here is how I found the MBS Console:
After a bit of poking around I realized that the App Engine Console (appengine.google.com) provides access to the MBS console, listed under the "Custom" heading in the left hand list of links.
BTW: I needed this to implement the solution posted here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/17495210/549510

Android App Delivery

I am new to Android, working through some tutorials - but I cannot find anything that mentions the delivery mechanism.
Once I complete an app - how do I launch it, there must be tonnes of documentation but I cant find it. Not sure what to Google for.

To publish your app on the market you will need an Android Developper Account and signing your app.
Everything needed is here:
http://developer.android.com/guide/publishing/publishing.html

There is a good documentation on the official google docs

As for publishing the app on Google's market, see here.
As for debugging the app on your phone, see here.
Also, I recommend using Eclipse with the ADT Plugin to develop, deploy and test your app.

Here is a good answer too: http://mobile.tutsplus.com/tutorials/android/publish-to-android-market/
It's not better than official google one but I think it's usefull!

How to implement the API Samples? (VoiceRecognition)

I am very new to Android development and I am trying to create a very basic app that makes use of the VoiceRecognition facility.
The resource site here says to just paste the sample code into the project:
http://developer.android.com/resources/articles/speech-input.html
However eclipse doesn't seem to find/like the line "import com.example.android.apis.R", what it underlines is the com.example part of it, and as a result all the "R." methods give errors (e.g. findViewById(R.id.list))....
Is there something that I am not doing? Am I supposed to set up the project in a particular way in order to use these code samples?
Thank you very much

Check that you have the Google APIs installed in your environment.
For each SDK version you target, you can choose to use the one with the Google APIs or not. Speech input utilises the Google APIs so you must have them installed and target them in your app and Eclipse.
EDIT:
Detailed instructions for using the Google APIs in Eclipse can be found on the Google Maps Overview page.
You'll need to pay particular attention to the Set up a new Android project section (which also covers reconfiguring an existing project) and Set up an Android Virtual Device. You may or may not need to reference the speech library in a similar way to the Add a uses-library element section.