I bought myself the official Galaxy S3 desktop dock (Samsung EDD-D200BEGSTA) and the good news is that it works just fine with my first generation Galaxy Note and the new Note 2. Immediately after putting it in the dock, ‘dock homescreen’ is activated. There are 5 shortcuts displays along with a huge clock.
If you play the music while the Note is in the dock, it will route the sound to the speakers connected to the dock. If you take it out, music will continue to play via its speakers. Neat. The dock works with S3, S2, Note 1 and Note 2 and can be bought online for just $30 from here.