Articles By Alex Angove-Plumb
Alex Angove-Plumb
Digital Content Editor
Alex Angove-Plumb is a Digital Content Editor at WhistleOut and an award-winning journalist. He's been in the tech publishing industry since 2010, putting him a few short years away from the title of Grizzled Ancient in his chosen profession. He was an original WhistleOut-er before running NBN Co's corporate blog for two years, then moving on to a lengthy stint at CHOICE. Now he's come home.
Over his career, Alex has learned more about phones, telcos, and the NBN than he'd like to admit, and is happy to put his expertise to good use by helping our readers navigate the often-confusing morass of buzzwords and gotchas that tech marketing can throw your way.
When not shaking his fist at kids these days, you might find Alex tinkering about the house doing arguably destructive DIY, messing with one or both of his cats, or trying just-one-more-run in whatever roguelite he's currently obsessed with.
Expertise
- Mobile plans
- Internet plans
- Telco
- Smartphones
- Headphones and other audio
Awards
- Best News Writer (2024 Consensus IT Writers Awards)
Education
- Post-graduate Certificate of Editing and Online Publishing - Macquarie University (2020)
- Editing for the Screen and Digital Publishing - NSW Writer’s Centre (2018)
- Bachelor of Creative Writing - Macquarie University (2005 - 2007)
Featured Publications
HTC Desire Z Review
The HTC Desire Z is one of HTC’s newer mid-range Android releases. Running on Android 2.2, the Desire Z sports a relatively straight forward design that’s pretty compact for slider keyboard device. Once again we noticed the capacitive buttons instead of mechanical (yes, we know we mention this a lot but we really do prefer mechanical buttons) but on the Desire Z it tended not to be too much of a problem, as they had a much smaller surface area than usual and were thus more difficult to tap by accident.
HTC Desire HD Review
The HTC Desire HD is the natural successor to HTC’s old flagship phone – the HTC Desire. The Desire HD is very similar to the Desire in many respects. However, the improvements implemented in the Desire HD are definitely noticeable such as the larger screen, brighter display and Android 2.2 (Froyo) operating system.
HTC HD7 Review
At first glance the HTC HD7 is an elegant, but not unique looking device. Its 4.3 inch screen has a remarkably thin bezel surrounding it, the speaker and microphone are concealed stylishly between the bezel and frame of the handset and the dark yet shiny edge definitely adds an element of class. However, the effect was diminished when we realised that the framed sticks in to your ear when making a call. This was uncomfortable and only became more annoying with time.
Nokia E6 Looks Like a BlackBerry
Nokia’s taken a leaf out of RIM’s book and designed a very familiar-looking handset aimed at business and enterprise users. The Nokia E6 is a business-oriented phone with a 2.46 inch display, portrait QWERTY keypad, touchpad and capacitive touchscreen. You’ll recognise the basic design form the iconic BlackBerry series that was obviously the inspiration behind this handset’s form-factor.
Tethering Now On Voda Infinite Plans
Vodafone’s Infinite Plans have been some of the better mobile phone deals in the Australian mobile market since November last year. Unfortunately for Vodafone customers, however, the carrier originally inexplicably removed the ability to freely tether internet through your phone and to another device like a laptop or tablet. That’s all changed now with Vodafone allowing customers to use their included data on any device they can tether with.
Vodafone to Replace Entire Network
Vodafone Hutchison Australia is planning to replace their entire wireless network during the next 18 months. Despite the obvious connotations (that Vodafone has realised it needs a massive infrastructure overhaul to stay in the game due to its recent lawsuits and bevy of customer complaints) Vodafone maintains that this move has been in the works for over 12 months now.
Telstra Plans for 2011 4G Rollout
Telstra has announced their plan for a 2011 rollout of a new LTE “4G” network. LTE (meaning Long-Term Evolution) is a wireless technology that has recently become extremely popular in the US and offers transfer rates of up to 60mbs, that’s over seven times the speed most of Australia’s current 3G wireless network.
Telstra’s Per Minute Rate Adjustment
UPDATED: Telstra has finally said goodbye to their 30 second block calls, bringing it in line with many other telcos with new per minute charges. From March 2011, Telstra will begin charging for mobile, STD and international calls in one minute segments, meaning that regardless of whether your call is 5 seconds or 55 seconds, you will be charged for one full minute.
