Top iPod touch questions

Here are my answers to the two most common questions I get about my iPod touch are:

• How is the battery life?

Battery life in my experience has tracked fairly closely to Apple's specs which are LINK. Time will tell how well it holds up, since I'm a heavy user logging about 1.25 hours a day using my iPod while commuting so I'll give an update after 3 and 6 months of use.

• What is it like to type on the touch?

Ok on to question number two - typing on the touch. I've types the last two posts on my touch as a test. I will say that its usable and not as fast as a full Qwerty keyboard Blackberry but is comparable in speed and word recognition to a Suretype based Blackberry Pearl.

My biggest complaint about using the keyboard on iPhone and iPod touch is that it needs to be able to enable the accelerometer to support rotating the screen to the horizontal position so that you have a larger keyboard to work.

Drop me an email with any other touch questions.

Shure 110 ear phones review

By no means am I an audiophile but after a number of years of iPod use on a daily basis I opted to upgrade the ear phones with the purchase of an iPod touch. Previously, I had been using a cheap replacement pair of ear bud style headphones and grew tired of having to crank up the volume on the subway. Like many others I found that the stock Apple ear buds did not fit my ears particularly well thus my search for a pair of noise cancelling ear phones. Since I commute via subway and frequently fly having a small portable pair of ear phones is critical. I did some research and slowly ratcheted up my budget given that the cheap ear phones only typicallly lasted for a year. Given that I didn't want to spend more than $100 and am not an audiophile (my main listening on the iPod Touch is to podcasts) I quickly realized that I would be going with noise isolating ear phones. The main difference between noise isolating headphones is that they utilize an ear bud that can be compacted (similar to ear plugs) and placed in the ear that expand to block out noise. Noise cancelling headphones utilize a microphone to sample outside sound and offset the noise with a sound wave that is the opposite of the ambient noise being cancelled. My reading indicated that noise cancelling headphones were most effective at filtering out consistent frequencies (airplane engines) but were typically in over the ear style headphones or available in high end (read very expensive $300+ in ear ear phones). 

At the end of the day I opted to purchase a pair of Shure 110 ear phones for use with my touch and to-date have been happy with the performance of these headphones. The main challenge in using these ear phones is to get used to a pair of in ear ear phones. In this case I found the biggest challenge was to find the correct positioning in inserting these ear phones but I seem to finally have the knack.  The main complaint that I'd have about this pair of ear phones is that the length of cable running to the right ear bud is a bit short given that both earphones connect to a spliter that weighs enough to at times pull the ear bud out of your ear if not put in the correct position.  Overall I'd look at this pair of ear phones as a solid option for noise isolating ear phones. At the end of the day, spend the extra money and buy a quality pair of ear phones your hearing is worth it.

"Hedge Hunters" - Book Review

Hedge Hunters is a book by Katherine Burton that similar to Inside the House of Money covers the inner workings of the hedge fund business. The book offers readers a perspective into the hedge fund business through interviews with some of the more successful fund managers. Unlike Inside the House of Money, this book approaches the hedge fund industry from a slightly different angle by asking a series of questions:

• What makes a great hedge fund manager?
• What accounts for the ability to thrive under conditions that make mere survival an achievement?
  

To answer these questions Hedge Hunters reveals the thoughts of over 18 different portfolio managers through a series of interviews (most are relatively short 8 to 10 pages in length) and cover a standard background on the subject then a discussion of their approach to investing. The portfolio managers included in the book are:

• Mark Yusko - Blue Ridge Capital; Michael Steinhardt - Steinhardt Management Company
• John Armitage - Egerton Capital; Marc Lasry - Avenue Capital Group
• Craig Effron - Scoggin Capital Management; Lee Ainslie - Maverick Capital
• Bernay Box - Bonanza Capital; Boone Pickens - BP Capital;
• Brian Bradshaw, David Meaney, Michael Ross & Alex Szewczyk - BP Capital
• Josh Friedman & Mitch Julis - Canyon Partners
• Jeffrey Schachter & Burton Weinstein - Cedarview Capital Management; Dwight Anderson - Ospraie Fund
• Roberto Mignone - Bridger Management; Bruce Ritter - Yannix
• Julian Robertson - founder of Tiger Management; Jim Chanos - Kynikos Associates
• Richard Perry - Perry Capital; Daniel Loeb - Third Point.

The book covers a wide range of hedge funds and investment styles from macro global to distressed debt firm so there is enough range that everyone can find something for them in the book. I found myself warming to this book increasingly as I read further and found that the points out of the interviews seemed to be more clearly defined. I will admit the first part of the book reads more like a series of magazine interviews but as you get further in the momentum builds and the chapters flow together and build on the discussion (a large part of this has to do with the interrelationships of funds and managers detailed in the later half of the book).

Here are a few points that were made by different interviewees about the investing process that resonated with me:

• A great quote regarding contrarian investing from Bernay Box "I like to go to the party to see who's drunk" relating to the "hot" stock of the moment. In terms of problem stocks he states "... I like to go to fires to see what's coming out of the ashes".
• The interview with Jeffrey Schachter & Burton Weinstein takes an interesting turn as it focuses on the improvements their firm has made to their investment process to address challenges they'd faced. The interview details their use of tools for trading such as aggressive use of Stop-Loss orders on their positions, a strong IT infrastructure to track and ensure they focused on the best ideas from their team.
• Julian Robertson offers some interesting criteria he looks for in bringing on new talent into his firm which include: honest, smart, hard-working and competitive people. Mr. Robertson's provides good insight into part of the process of developing a great hedge fund manager since he has been instrumental in training and helping launch the careers of a long-list of successful managers. I think the interview with Mr. Robertson while different in tone to others in the book is one of the more interesting given that so little time and attention is paid to developing great talent in the investment management business.
  

Bottomline - Whether you're interested in becoming a professional investor or simply better managing your money Hedge Hunters offers some valuable insights into the techniques, mind-set and skills needed to be a successful hedge fund manager.

Fair Disclosure - I was sent a review copy by Bloomberg the publisher of this book to read and was skeptical but as stated in the above review found it a worthy read especially for those interested in hedge funds or professional investing.