At the moment, developers looking to see their apps listed in the all-important Designed for Families category in Google Play have to clearly indicate whether the apps are ad-supported. Following on from the earlier introduction of an 'In-App purchases' warning label, Google is now going further with a mandatory 'ad-supported' label.

Starting 11 January next year, an app that includes ads must show the new label in its store listing. This will make it clear to downloaders what to expect from anything they install, and Google's definition of ads is wide-ranging so a lot of apps will be affected.

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DevOps skills are increasingly sought after and as a result salaries for DevOps engineers are higher than for other IT job titles according to new research.

IT automation software provider PuppetLabs has released its 2015 DevOps Salary Report based on data gathered from its 2015 State of DevOps Report.

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As part of the third Hour of Code, Microsoft has launched a coding tutorial based on Minecraft. The event is part of Computer Science Education Week, which runs from December 7-13 and uses the familiar Minecraft to teach coding to people aged 6 and above.

The tutorial is a collaboration between Microsoft, Code.org, and Mojang AB, the company behind Minecraft. It provides a gentle on-ramp to learning the basics of coding, with a view to inspiring the next generation of developers.

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Earlier in the year Mozilla took the decision to build Pocket into Firefox. Previously available as an add-on, the 'read it later' tool was transformed into an integral part of the browser. While this was a move welcomed by some users, others are concerned about the privacy implications.

There are also concerns that having Pocket built in unnecessarily bloats Mozilla's code, but it looks as though it is here to stay. Speaking to Venture Beat, director of engineering for the browser said "there are currently no plans to offer a version of Firefox that doesn’t include Pocket".

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At a time when the speed of application development is vital to commercial success, the DevOps methodology -- based on communication, collaboration, integration and automation -- has become one of the biggest IT moves around.

However, it’s more than just a business philosophy; to do it right requires genuine infrastructure investment and development.

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At ARM TechCon 2015, ARM is unveiling a number of new mbed IoT Device Platform products. Designed to make it easier to deploy IoT devices on a large scale, developers will be able to use mbed Device Connector to build cloud-integrated web apps.

There's also a new build of the mbed OS Technology Preview and together these technologies can be used to connect and securely manage IoT devices. Two new reference designs for industry and wearables have also been released.

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Today at the Dropbox Open event, the cloud storage company launched Dropbox Enterprise. Building on the idea of Dropbox Business, Dropbox Enterprise is aimed at larger organizations and includes a new set of security and admin tools.

At the same time, the company also launched Dropbox Platform 2.0, and updated version of Dropbox's API that makes it easier for developers to build apps. Also announced was the new Dropbox Partner Network, creating a way for partners to collaborate to create new products and communicate with customers.

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Many iPhone users were upset to find that battery life was rather shorter than expected. Fingers of suspicion started to point to the iOS Facebook app, and now the social network has released a fix as well as revealing that poor coding was to blame.

The latest version of the Facebook app goes some way to putting things right, but it is unlikely to be a complete fix. Facebook says it "found a few key issues and have identified additional improvements" in the app, but only "some of which" made it into the latest update. Something the company is keen to stress is that the Location History feature is not responsible, and provides details about two other factors contributing to battery drain.

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We reported last month that women only make up 10 percent of the IT security workforce and there's similar under representation across the tech sector.

To address this, freelance developer network Toptal is announcing a scholarship scheme to support and empower women aspiring to become professional software engineers.

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One of Google's slightly more unusual hardware releases is the OnHub wireless router. At $200, it's a network device that some might consider expensive, but at the same time its performance has impressed. A router is a router is a router, you might say, but Google's OnHub is somewhat different to the majority.

A teardown by iFixIt revealed the guts of the router, showing that it's a TP-Link device (confirming what Google had already said) with a somewhat unusual antenna design. It's an intriguing piece of hardware that Exploitee.rs has referred to as being "at heart a Chromebook without a screen modified as a router". The good news for anyone who likes to get their hands dirty with some hardware hacking? It is rootable and Exploitee.rs reveals all.

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Mozilla will kill "most" NPAPI plugins in Firefox almost two years after Google took the same action with Chrome. Back in September 2014, Google announced that NPAPI support would be removed starting in January 2015. Mozilla is now playing catch-up, and plans to end NPAPI support by the end of 2016.

When Google announced its decision, speed, stability, and security were cited as reasons for ditching plugins, and Mozilla is taking much the same line. The company also points out that many features and functions that only used to be possible through the use of NPAPI plugins can now be achieved through native web APIs. But what is this going to mean for users?

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If you have an iPhone, you're stuck with running iOS apps; if you have an Android phone, you're stuck with Android apps. At least that used to be the case. For desktop platforms such as OS X and Linux, tools and emulators exist that make it possible to run software designed for a different platform. CodeWeavers produce CrossOver which enables PC games and applications to run on non-PC platforms.

At the moment, CrossOver is available for Mac and Linux, but there are plans to bring the tool to Android. This means that, ultimately, it should be possible to run Windows software on an Android phone or tablet.

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Google today announced a project which has the aim of speeding up the web for mobile users -- Accelerated Mobile Pages, or AMP. While there are clearly benefits for users in speeding up the web, Google is pushing the benefits that advertisers could reap: if a page takes too long to load, visitors may give up and not see any ads at all.

The AMP project is an open source initiative that gives publishers the ability to optimize their site code for mobiles so it will "load instantly everywhere". The aim is to be as platform independent as possible, allowing for optimize-once workflow. The result of a collaboration between Google, Twitter, WordPress, LinkedIn and others, a new open framework called AMP HTML has been put together from existing web technologies.

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Microsoft seems to be placing increased importance on gaming. The latest in its list of acquisitions is game physics company Havoc which has been bought from Intel for an undisclosed fee. Used in titles such as Assassins Creed, Call of Duty, and Halo, Havoc's physics and AI solutions will be an important weapon in Microsoft's gaming arsenal alongside DirectX 12.

Announcing the acquisition, Microsoft says it will "work with developers to create great gaming experiences, and continue to license Havok's development tools to partners".

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Reviews can be an important factor in deciding which app or extension to install. The idea of user reviews is something that has been adopted by Apple in its App Store, and is also used by Microsoft and in Google Play. The Chrome Web Store also features reviews, and a new feature has just been added that could make them more useful than ever -- the ability for developers to respond.

This is an important change as it gives developers the right of reply. When reading a review written by someone you almost certainly don't know, it can be hard to tell if their opinion should be trusted. Did they rate the app or extension poorly because there is a problem with it, or did they not understand how to do something. Giving developers the chance to reply to reviews allows for greater transparency and allows others to see that the developer in question is reading feedback -- but it may not all be good news.

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