Develop Reference

Google Play Services with AdMob. Check availability?

I'm in the process of migrating from AdMob SDK to Google Play Services. I've done most of the job and things seem to be working fine, but I'm not sure I understand the logic behind some of the interaction.
The changes I've made can be found here: Google Play Services Migration.
When am I utilizing Google Play Services with my new code? The site "Set up Google Play Services SDK" states that your app should verify the version available before attempting to perform API transactions. However, when running my app on an emulator that does not have Google Play Services, I am still able to fetch an ad using an AdView and AdRequest.Builder(). I do however note the LogCat warning Google Play services is missing.. How can the ad still be showing?
Also, will the Google Play Services referenced library be included in the APK export, or is this just for the development environment?

Google Play Services consists of two components. One is the jar linked to the app and the other is part of the system (Android OS). The AdMob ad display component is in the jar while other play services are in the system.
If a app is built with Google Play Services you will have the ability to display AdMob ads, but you won't get some of the other Google Play Services features.
So yes, when your app is linked to the library some Google Play Service classes will be included in your APK.
It is also possible to display AdMob ads by using the older (now deprecated) AdMob SDK.

Google Mobile Ads and Kindle Fire

I recently replaced AdMob library with Google Mobile Ads and I have a question about that: Will ads appear on Amazon Kindle Fire devices?
I ask this because I know that Google Mobile Ads depends on Google Play Services, so I'm a little confused.

Google Play Services still supports devices that don't have the Google Play store
installed on it. The only difference is that devices without the Play
Store (and the accompanied Google Play Services app) on it will not receive automatic
updates, so you'll still want to grab new versions of the library
provided in Android SDK manager and include them when releasing your
app.
As you can see above, if Google Play Services is not installed on the device, it will fall back to the version you included with your app as a library.
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/google-admob-ads-sdk/obflEHgq_og

Using ads - Google Play Service vs. Android SDK

I'd like to implement banner-ads in my new app and stumbled across two possibilitys of doing this.
The first one is using the Android SDK: com.google.ads.*
The second one is using Google Play Services: com.google.android.gms.ads.*
I googled a lot and read the documentation but I found no resources which state the differences between both solutions.
What is the difference between both and which one is the best if I simply want to add banner-ads in my app?

Direct to the point,
The main difference is that if you use Google Play Services one then you will use Google play service APIs. If you use other modules of Google Play like maps, location, gcm, play games then you can use com.google.android.gms.ads.* but if you don't use other Services then use com.google.ads.*
Their behavior is same...

As Selvin did not post his comment as an answer I'll answer this question by myself:
Use the Google Play Services com.google.android.gms.ads.*
Don't use the Android SDK for Ads because it is deprecated:
Deprecated. On August 1, 2014, Google Play will stop accepting new or
updated apps that use the old standalone Google Mobile Ads SDK v6.4.1
or lower. You must upgrade to the Google Play version of the Mobile
Ads SDK by then.
Google Mobile Ads SDK

GooglePlayServices update deprecates DFP ads?

I have a DfpAdView that I'm using according to the documentation here:
https://developers.google.com/mobile-ads-sdk/docs/dfp/fundamentals#android
I've been using the GoogleAdMobAdsSdk-6.4.1. I just updated Google Play Services to version 13, and it seems that the AdMob SDK has been integrated into Google Play Services in this version. However, DFP is not supported as mentioned here:
https://developer.android.com/google/play-services/ads.html
Note: The SDK doesn’t currently support DFP, Ad Exchange or Search Ads for Mobile Apps but support is coming soon.
I have to use GooglePlayServices for the Maps SDK, but it breaks the required DFP ad that I'm using. Do I need to remove the DFP ad in favor of something else, or do I change the build order so that the AdMob jar takes precedence over the GPS library where package/class names conflict (is that possible?)

The best solution for now (if you are using DFP and one of the other Google Play services) is to excise the Admob classes from the Google Play Services library and use the Admob-6.4.1 SDK.
Not ideal, but I suspect DFP support will be delivered soon.
Alternate is t hold off on upgrading to the new GPS library until DFP support is available. Depends on your urgency.

Google Plus Android API : "This app won't run unless you update Google Play Services"

I am playing with the Google sample app relative to the Google Plus SDK (sample app provided by Google here: https://developers.google.com/+/quickstart/android)
I can run the sample app. But when I want to login to Google Plus from within the app, I get the message: "This app won't run unless you update Google Play Services". If I click on the update button, I see that I have got the last update of the Google Play Services (v3.2.66). In Eclipse, I have got rev. 13 of Google Plus SDK.
How can I solve this problem?

This was a bug in the Google+ app that is fixed in the latest build that came out today: https://plus.google.com/101870761930221849874/posts/KohXe9pBGF6 Sorry about that.