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The NPD Group has said today that the gaming industry enjoyed its best November, ever, on the back of Modern Warfare 3.

Notes NPD's Anita Frazier:

This November marks the best November on record for sales of new physical content.

Digital content is not included in the figures, but the NPD says software sales totaled $1.7 billion for the month, up from $1.45 billion last year.

Hardware sales fell, to $982 million from $1.1 billion year-over-year.

The top titles for the month were Modern Warfare 3 and Skyrim, followed by:

Battlefield 3, Electronic Arts
Assassin's Creed: Revelations, Ubisoft
Just Dance, Ubisoft
Madden NFL 12, Electronic Arts
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, Sony
Saints Row: The Third, THQ
The Legend of Zelda: SkywardSword, Nintendo
Batman: Arkham City, Warner Bros. Interactive

According to Digitimes, Barnes & Noble has received over 1 million of the new Nook Tablets from its component suppliers.

Citing the company's manufacturing partners, the report says the company had to increase its orders recently thanks to strong sales.

Initially, B&N had ordered 800,000 to be built through 2011.

The tablet has s a 7" display with a resolution of 1024x600, is powered by Android 2.3, has a 1GHz dual core processor and 1GB of RAM.

Nook Tablets come with 16GB onboard storage and accepts SD cards up to 32GB.

The device sells for $250.

UK retailer Clove has said this week that the highly-anticipated Transformer Prime will reach the nations next month.

Clove has the tablet up for pre-order with stock "expected in January."

The smaller capacity 32GB version will sell for £459.00 (£550.80 with VAT) with the keyboard dock.

Asus' 64GB variant will sell for the same price, but without the keyboard dock. Those are the only two versions available, currently, from Clove.

Finally, the company has promised an update to Ice Cream Sandwich in early January.

Sotheby's auction house is preparing to auction off the three pages of typewritten paper that are the founding papers for Apple.

On April 1st, 1976, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne all signed the documents which are headlined "Apple Computer Company Partnership Agreement."

The auction is expected to fetch about $150,000 next week in NYC.

Pencom Systems CEO Wade Saadi is the current owner of the documents, and he said he did not tell too many people he owned them.

However, after Jobs passed away earlier this year, his phone began ringing from those that did know, inquiring on how to purchase.

Video via NBC:

Indie devs concerned about new Metro-styled Xbox dashboard.

Representatives of the Xbox Live Indie Games community, told Eurogamer that the update shifts focus away from games considerably, and that it's even worse for Indie games.

"Microsoft take a back-seat approach and only really gets involved to take a cut of your sales and make the games slightly harder to find with each new dashboard update," said Brett Eveleigh, developer of Avatar Battle Bees.

"Not that anyone wants to go through the pain of retail/arcade style certification but it feels like Microsoft has abandoned the platform in favour of Windows Phone 7. But instead of admitting it they're brushing it under the carpet and hoping it'll go away."

There is currently an Indie Games tile on the mew Dashboard, but there are fears that this will phase out in time. Also, Indie games are not listed under New Arrivals or Genre tabs.

"For better or worse, the new Metro layout is an advertiser's dream," said Mommy's Best Games founder Nathan Fouts. "Every single main page now has an advertisement on it (you can't scroll away any more), there are dozens of secret little places to feature things, and it's easy to get lost."

YouTube acquires New York-based music rights management firm.

YouTube claims that smart copyright management is an important part of its mega-popular online video service, making it possible for songwriters and performers to be compensated fairly for the use of their works, while also enabling those works to be used in new ways.

The company has invested tens of millions of dollars in content management technology so far. Content ID, for example, lets rights owners identify user-uploaded videos that comprise of entirely, or partially their content. The rights owners can then choose to block them from YouTube altogether, gets statistics on them or opt to make revenue from them.

Now YouTube is adding to its content/copyright management toolkit with the acquisition of RightsFlow. The New York firm deals with the complex issues of licensing and royalty payment management.

"By combining RightsFlow's expertise and technology with YouTube's platform, we hope to more rapidly and efficiently license music on YouTube, meaning more music for you all to enjoy, and more money for the talented people producing the music," YouTube said.

"From music videos to live-streamed concerts, YouTube has become a launch-pad for both aspiring musicians and more established independent artists?which is why we have and will continue to invest in tools that make it easier for copyright owners to manage their content online."

Cyber criminals stole money from British students.

Students on government loan schemes were the target of a phishing scam that duped them into handing over account details to a maliciously crafted website. Phishing refers to the practice of tricking users into handing over personal details or money to a rogue entity.

According to Scotland Yard, some of the students had between £1,000 and £5,000 stolen from them as part of the scam. The e-Crime unit of the Metropolitan Police was alerted to the scam in August, and proceeded to work alongside the Student Loans Company, the banking industry and Internet Service Providers in its investigation.

The Met has not reported the arrest of six people in connection with the crime.

A 26-year old man and a 25-year old woman were arrested in Manchester, a 25-year old man was arrested in Deptford in south London, a 49-year old woman and a 31-year old woman man were arrested in Stratford in north-east London and a 38-year old man was arrested in Bolton, Lancashire.

Officers seized computer equipment from the locations in Manchester, London and Bolton.

Microsoft admits "kill switch" in Windows Store.

The company has the ability to disable and remove applications from the Windows Store remotely from Windows 8. Both Apple and Google retain the same power over their respective app stores, though Apple has never had to use the so called "Kill Switch."

The reason for its existence is security concerns. Apple's App Store screens all apps that are available and therefore it rarely has to remove one for violations. Even when it does remove an app, it doesn't ever use the Kill Switch to disable it on iOS devices remotely, even though it could.

Google, on the other hand, has been forced to wield the Kill Switch before. In June 2010, it used the Kill Switch against two Apps that has been available from the Android Market. They were put there by Jon Oberheide, co-founder and CTO of Duo Security, as part of research into vulnerabilities that let malware authors target Android.

During 2011, it used the Kill Switch against scores of malicious apps that had been sneaked onto the Android Market and downloaded by users.

Microsoft has also built in Kill Switch functionality to its Windows Store, for the same reason as both Apple and Google. "In cases where your security is at risk, or where we're required to do so for legal reasons, you may not be able to run apps or access content that you previously acquired or purchased a license for," the Windows Store terms read.

Flaws in Skype expose users.

The NYU-Poly website is reporting on an issue with how Skype calling works that can allow an attacker to retrieve the IP address of another user easily. Of course, callers using VoIP systems can obtain the IP address of another user when establishing a call with that person, but there are problems with how easily this can be done using Skype and any other user.

A malicious user could, for example, initiate a Skype call, block some packets and then quickly terminate the call. In that case, they could obtain the IP address of the target user with alerting them with any pop-up window or ringing sound.

To make it worse, the user does not have to be on a contact list, and the trick works even when a user has configured Skype to block calls from non-contacts. These days, IP addresses can be fed to a number of commercial geo-IP mapping services to determine location information, in cases.

Maine senator Olympia Snowe has said today that Amazon should end its Price App promotion.

In an effort to bring awareness to their mobile app, Amazon is offering consumers up to $5 worth of free credit if they compare a product in-store and decide instead to buy it from the e-tailer.

You must use Amazon's Price Check app on Android or iOS, which gives users the chance to scan a bar code, take a pic of the item, or use a traditional text search to find the item, price, details and reviews of products.

When you walk in stores, Amazon is asking that users submit prices of items via the app, so that the company can confirm they have the lowest prices. The promotion is good for 5 percent off, up to $5, for up to three items.

Snowe says:

Amazon's promotion -- paying consumers to visit small businesses and leave empty-handed -- is an attack on Main Street businesses that employ workers in our communities. Small businesses are fighting everyday to compete with giant retailers, such as Amazon, and incentivizing consumers to spy on local shops is a bridge too far.

Apple must license patent, and pay for past use.

Motorola complained to German courts that Apple failed to license intellectual property owned by Motorola Mobility. The patent covers a "method for performing a countdown function during a mobile-originated transfer for a packet radio system."

Apple said it would immediately appeal the decision; moving fast to stave off any attempt by Motorola Mobility to get sales blocked in the country.

Motorola licenses the patent in question to other firms on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms, or Frand for short. The owner of a Frand-type patent is obliged to license it to third-parties since it is considered essential to an industry standard.

Apple had previously indicated it would be willing to pay a Frand-set fee to license the technology, and pay a similar rate for past use, but it tried to retain the right to contest the validity of the patent with a view to past damages, and lost.

Motorola had pushed its right to charge an above-Frand rate for Apple's use of the technology, stemming back four years to the original iPhone.

"We will continue to take all necessary steps to protect our intellectual property, as the company's patent portfolio and licensing agreements with companies both in the US and around the world are critical to our business," said Scott Offer, senior vice-president and general counsel of Motorola Mobility.

MP requests House of Commons discussion on violent games.

Keith Vaz, Member of Parliament for Leicester East, has called on the House of Commons to debate over the effects of violent video games. Vaz cited a recently published study that demonstrated effects on the brain from playing video games.

"Could we have a debate next week about the harmful effects of violent video games?" he requested. "Last week, the university of Indiana published research that showed that regularly playing those games resulted in physical changes in the brain."

Unfortunately, the study that Vaz is referring to is already being heavily criticised. The funding for the study came from The Center for Successful Parenting, which has a stated goal to change, "our culture to protect children from unhealthy media in all formats."

Critics say that the study is broadly anti-video games, but that didn't stop Keith Vaz from citing it anyway, as others surely will.

"At a time when parents are thinking of purchasing video games for Christmas, does the right honest Gentleman not think that it is important to hold a debate on this matter?" asked Vaz. "This is not about censorship - it is about protecting our children."

CEO distances Google from Carrier IQ at a conference in The Hague.

Google chief executive Eric Schmidt has insisted that the search giant has nothing to do with Carrier IQ, and does not use any of its software.

Since a researcher pointed out alarming information about the Carrier IQ software that was pre-installed on millions of Android and iOS smartphones, the situation has exploded into a saga that had gotten the attention of the U.S. Congress, and spawned at least one class-action lawsuit.

A video showing the Carrier IQ software logging information on a HTC smartphone running Android might have given some users the impression that Google itself is responsible for installing the software. Not the case, according to Schmidt.

"Android is an open platform, so it's possible for people to build software that's actually not very good for you, and this appears to be one," Schmidt told the Internet freedom conference.

"It's a key-logger, and it actually does keep your keystrokes, and we certainly don't work with them and we certainly don't support it."

French court decision is disappointing for Samsung in global patent dispute.

Samsung said on Friday that it failed to convince a French court to impose a preliminary injunction on sales of Apple Inc.'s iPhone 4S. The update is the latest in an ongoing global patent war between both firms, which includes at least 30 legal cases.

Samsung has enjoyed some successes lately, with a U.S. court refusing to put in place an early sales ban on its Galaxy tablet products, and also seeing a sales ban in Australia overturned by the courts.

Following the French decision, Samsung said it still has to review the written grounds of the ruling and that it will continue to exercise all available options to protect its IP rights.

Apple has accused Samsung of slavishly cloning the iPhone and iPad with its Galaxy-branded line of smartphones and tablet PCs. It first sued Samsung in the United States in April. Samsung responded quickly, suing Apple for infringing on its own wireless technology patents.

Since then, the dispute has spilled over into at least ten countries.

Adele comes out ahead on iTunes.

The 23-year old British singer has provided both the top selling single of the year on iTunes, and the top selling album, earning herself the title of "iTunes Artist of the Year". She topped the charts for the year ahead of Bruno Mars, Katy Perry, LMFAO, CeeLo Green, Lil Wayne, Kanye West, Coldplay and Jay-Z.

The 'iTunes Rewind' list marks out the year's most downloaded iTumes from Apple's music store, while not providing any sales information.

Other noteable achievements included Nicki Minaj being labeled the Breakthrough Artist of the Year, and Foo Fighters getting Album of the Year for "Wasting Light," the seventh studio album from the band.

Outside of music, Angry Birds was the top selling game for the iPad, and Doctor Who was the most downloaded TV show.