Before the holidays, an OEM extended battery kit surfaced for the Samsung Galaxy S3, initially going on pre-order at a British retailer. While that same retailer is still taking pre-orders for the item without an expected shipping date, Amazon Germany has gone one better. 

According to the item's listing on Amazon.de, the Samsung Extended Battery Kit will become available on January 5. Pricing is relatively consistent with earlier reports, coming in at €39.90, slightly cheaper even than the expected RRP of £40 (€48) in the UK. There is no word yet on if/when we can expect to see wider availability of this. 

Additionally, click on past the break for a quick video -- in Slovenian, and you'll want to spin on to about 1:05 -- which demonstrates the extended battery and replacement battery door. The best news? It doesn't seem to add much additional thickness to the phone. 

Source: Amazon via All About Samsung

Samsung is running a promotion on its official Facebook page that lets Galaxy Note 2 and Galaxy SIII (S3) users get their hands on a free flip cover and set of 6 TecTiles for registering their device. All you have to do is head to the Samsung Facebook page, click the "Holiday Offers" button and then follow through to register your device. While quantities last, you can get some free swag for giving Samsung a little information about yourself. You'll need an active Facebook account and authorize the Samsung "app" for your page, but that's about it.

Registering your phone with the manufacturer may already be something you want to do, so might as well get something free for it, right? Head to the source links below to get your own.

Source: Samsung Galaxy Note 2 Forums; Samsung (Facebook)

 

A deal between Google and the Arris Group (a cable and broadband equipment supplier) has been reached, making the Motorola Home division now an Arris property. The deal checks in a $2.35 billion in cash and stock for Google, and the boards of both companies have approved.

The Home division of Motorola generated 3.4 billion dollars in the last four quarters, and its acquisition should be pretty lucrative for Arris. The $2.05 billion and $300 million in stock also makes Google a 15.7-percent owner of the Arris Group. This sounds like a good business move for all involved, but with the market closed we're unsure how this move will affect the stock prices.

Business is business, but many of us were looking forward to seeing what the purchase of Motorola could do for projects like Google at Home or Google TV. Hopefully, we'll still see those projects improved even without Google owning a consumer set-top box division. The full Press release is after the break.

The holidays are the one time a year where you have a chance to bring your family and friends the best in the gadget world, things that you just know they'd never get for themselves. Let's be honest though, it's also a good excuse to get a few things for yourself while the deals are good in December.

So what things do I have on my list to give (and keep) this holiday season? Read on past the break and see.

Update: Thanks to @PDTechHD who has sent us this picture of the Samsung Galaxy S3 extended battery in its retail packaging!

If the 2100mAh battery that comes stock with the Samsung Galaxy S3 still isn't quite enough for you, you'll be pleased to hear that Samsung appears set to launch an extended battery pack for the device. The extended battery hits 3000mAh, and has appeared for pre-order at British retailer, MobileFun. 

There are no images, or release date offered at this time, but the price for the battery is currently set at £39.99. Included is a replacement battery door -- in white or blue only it seems at the moment -- and the new battery will still come complete with NFC as with the standard one. 

The new battery will no doubts increase the overall thickness of the device, but many will take that for such a large battery. It isn't overly priced either for an OEM accessory, but for now we'll have to watch and wait to see when they appear. 

Source: MobileFun

Audio docks are pretty common over in the iOS camp, with a wide array of OEM's getting behind Apple's devices to create such accessories. Over here in Androidland, things aren't quite so plentiful. Samsung seems set to make a change to that if the leaked images we see here ring true. 

The leak was obtained by the guys over at Sammobile -- usually known for their firmware leaks -- and they claim it could be seen in the wild at either CES, next month in Las Vegas, or at Mobile World Congress, in Barcelona in February. They look pretty good, but with a speaker of course, that's only half the story. The images were accompanied by a set of leaked specs: 

• USB Audio Class
• Universal dock station
• Bluetooth version 3.0
• Power: 6W (3W x 2)
• Power volume button
• Charging Port
• 3.5mm Audio Plug-in

The beauty of course, is that any Android device with a bottom mounted microUSB charging port will be able to take advantage of the charging facilities. 

Source: Sammobile

Nights are drawing in, the temperature is heading below zero, and my wallet is empty. It's the festive season alright, which means giving killer gifts to the nearest and dearest. Me, as long as I get Back to the Future on the TV and the annual Boxing Day soccer football match, I'm happy. 

But, you want to give those you a love a great gift, right? Makes sense, so click on for some suggestions from across the pond. Pre-warning -- none are as good as Jerry's Glazed Ham.

Metago, the folks behind the uber-popular Android app Astro File Manager, has reached out for us to pass along a bit of news. They are busy with Astro version 4.0, and realize that a lot folks just aren't ready to make the change. For those folks, version 3 can be directly downloaded from Metago's website. 

Truth be told, I think the version 4 update is pretty awesome, and love the direction the app is headed. The new included gallery, the cloud connections with SkyDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox are awesome, and swiping three-pane interface works really well.

Fortunately, Metago realizes not everyone feels that way. If you need your old version back, grab it at the link below.

More: Metago

It seems Nexus 10 owners may be about to get a new, more convenient, more magnetic way to charge their tablets. Android Central forums poster jstevenkim has posted an image of what he says is a Pogo charger for the Samsung-made 10-inch tablet. Unlike a traditional microUSB getup, this pogo charger would be held in contact with the tablet's pogo pins magnetically, similar to an Apple MagSafe connector.

The poster claims he works for "the original and direct supplier of the pogo cable to S[amsung] in Korea," and that this charger will become available soon via Amazon and eBay, priced around $19.99-24.99. We'd take this with a pinch of salt -- the image provided certainly looks like it'd fit the Nexus 10, but there's no way of verifying how official it really is.

Of course, we're still waiting on the official pogo dock for the Nexus 10 -- not to mention its little brother, the Nexus 7. In the meantime this accessory may open up a novel way of charging the 10-inch Nexus, if microUSB is cramping your style.

Hit the Android Central Nexus 10 forum at the source link for more discussion and speculation.

Source: Android Central Forums