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Google just released new Android platform distribution numbers for the end of November. While software fragmentation is still definitely a problem for smartphones and tablets running the open-source operating system, the numbers paint a picture of slow but continuous improvement: 34.2 percent of all users are now running Ice Cream Sandwich or newer. That's a considerable improvement from just six months ago when Ice Cream Sandwich accounted for a paltry seven percent of all Android devices. Now, at 6.8 percent, both versions of Jelly Bean have nearly overtaken that number by themselves.

A research team at North Carolina State University led by Professor Xuxian Jiang recently announced that a security flaw in Android Version 4.0.4 and below could exploited by a rootkit with relative ease, according to an official university research blog post.

Like most Android malware, the rootkit can be distributed as a malicious app, opening up a host of potential vulnerabilities on any device on which it is installed. However, it functions in a different way.

Motorola’s Droid 4 has been  waiting for a long, long time for the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system update, but it seems as though there is no end in sight to the amount of patience required for this wait. 

Archos has announced the forthcoming release of a new Android tablet computer for children.
 
The 'Child Pad' is a seven-inch screen-toting tablet that runs the latest version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich, has a 1GHz processor and 1GB of RAM.

If you’re not familiar with CyanogenMod, you should be: the firmware has been responsible for some of the best unofficial Android alterations available. But now the hackers are stumped: The CM9 port of Android 4.0 to older devices will probably come after the manufacturers’ own effort.

A hacker named Steven has posted a video of Ice Cream Sandwich running on the Kindle Fire, along with more information in the XDA Developers forums. The hack is incomplete, lacking support for audio, Wi-Fi, the accelerometer and the light sensor. Also, transitions look a bit choppy, but it's a start.

The hacker plans to start an open source project for Ice Cream Sandwich on the Kindle Fire, and will post his code to it. This was only a matter of time, considering the Android 4.0 code is open source.