The near-universal standing ovation offered to the HTC One's aluminium body may have convinced Samsung to up its design game, according to reports this weekend.

The Korean company may have enjoyed a series of box office smashes with its Galaxy S and Galaxy Note devices, but each has been critiqued in some capacity for their plasticky, cheap-looking designs.

Now, according to Sam Mobile sources, the company is "worried" by how the HTC One raised the stakes and plans to strike back with an improved build material for the Galaxy Note 3, rumoured for later this year.

The site wrote: "According to SamMobile's famous insider, Samsung is planning to switch build quality for the next flagship device. He pointed out that the Galaxy Note 3 will not use the design guidelines of the Galaxy S4."

Taking Note

The report didn't elaborate on which material Samsung would be choosing for the Galaxy Note 3, but with the iPhone and HTC One going with aluminium, that would clearly be the favourite.

Sam Mobile said the company had experimented with a metal Galaxy S4, which was received very well internally, but would not have allowed Samsung to mass produce enough of the device in time for launch.

The perception that Samsung phones lack the build quality of some of its rivals has helped the chasing pack cling to its coat-tails in the last 12 months.

May the smartphone gods have mercy on their souls if Samsung really decides to go high-end with its design ethos.

It appears that Apple's iMessages and FaceTime outage earlier this week was not an isolated incident, as Apple users had no doubt hoped.

The messaging and video chat networks went down again for some users this morning.

Tuesday's iMessage and FaceTime outage lasted more than five hours and affected users on both iOS and Mac OS X seemingly on a global scale.

Today's service interruption was really more of a hiccup, lasting little over one hour according to Apple, though CNET reported that it was actually closer to two.

Does it really matter?

One of the things that attracts everyday consumers to Apple is the company's reliability. If there's an issue with a product or service, Apple is normally quick to help, and the "geniuses" in Apple stores can solve most problems with a quick visit.

Anything that tarnishes that image can't do Apple any good.

Granted, the lack of iMessages this morning and on Tuesday likely went unnoticed by the majority of iOS users, as all it meant was the little bubbles changed from blue to green as normal SMS messages were sent instead.

Some who found Apple's FaceTime video chat service down may have felt the outages more keenly, though.

In any case, Apple has yet to release a statement or provide a reason for the outage, despite our queries. We'll update this story if and when they do.

The hotly rumoured Motorola X phone still hasn't been made official, but its expected release date has apparently already been pushed back.

Initial reports suggested the handset, tipped to run Google's next version of Android dubbed Key Lime Pie, would arrive in stores in around June/July after a May announcement at the search giant's annual I/O conference.

PhoneArena is reporting that's no longer the case, with its sources claiming the Motorola X smartphone will arrive in "August or later".

Failing to impress

The unnamed source went on to reveal the handset it due to sport a 4.7-inch, full HD display and a slender bezel - which would fall in line with the likes of the Motorola Razr i and Razr HD.

No reason was given for the supposed delay, but it's been suggested that Google wasn't particularly impressed with the early prototypes, resulting in Motorola having to go back to the drawing board to impress its parent firm.

It's not clear how well connected the source is, so we're not taking what's been said as gospel, but it may mean we won't see the Motorola X at Google I/O next month - we're just going to have to wait and see.

O2 has decided to separate the talktime and phone costs in its new handset plan, designed to give users more flexibility.

In reality, the bubbly network is now offering SIM Only deals and the chance to pay for the phone over the course of the contract.

This isn't that different to how things work with the network now – consumers will still pay £37 a month for the HTC One with unlimited texts, calls and 1GB of data – but allows them to end the phone part of the contract earlier by just paying the balance of the phone, rather than having to fork out for the unused minutes as well. Of course you'll still be tied into the two year airtime contract.

There will be three O2 Refresh talktime plans on offer, mimicking SIM only deals, so for £12 a month, customers get 600 minutes, unlimited texts and 750MB of data; for £17, customers will have unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and 1GB of data and for £22 they receive unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and 2GB of data.

One and one, on and on

So the same HTC One plan would cost £17 per month on a two year deal for the talktime and data, and on top of that the user would spend £20 per month paying for the phone (with a £49.99 upfront cost).

And when the iPhone 5S comes rolling out, you can pay off the balance you've got left to buy the phone from the network and upgrade whenever you like. O2 is claiming that the One would normally cost £600 to buy outright, and on this deal you'll only shell out £529.99 over the two years to own a fancy new handset.

Although don't forget, you won't get a charger...

The full list of phones that you'll be able to get all 'Fresh on is: the Samsung Galaxy S3, S3 Mini, Note 2 and Ativ S, Blackberry Bold 9900 and Z10, HTC 8X and One, Sony Xperia T and Z, iPhone 4, 4S and 5, Nokia Lumia 820 and LG Nexus 4, although we don't know how much many of these will actually cost.

If you're literally salivating at the thought of such a price plan, don't rush out the door just yet. Mop up that flob on the desk and wait until April 16 – you'll be able to get O2 Refresh nationwide then.