“So, what’s this all about?

Simple put, I decided that it’d be pretty cool to build this website so you can put subway maps onto your iPod Photo. As I write this I’ve only got one city up so far — well, almost. I skipped Staten Island. Do people actually ride that subway?

Eventually I’d like to open the site up to allow other visitors to submit their own maps. one step at a time though.”

Source: www.ipodsubwaymaps.com

Now let’s take a 60GB iPod photo, which has a lovely colour screen. It also allows you to store thousands of photos. It’s easy to use interface allows you to browse through your pictures at an impressive speed. You can connect the iPod photo to your television and use the slideshow. .Imagine what it’s like to always have say a months worth of non-stop music playing in your back pocket. Being able to play this music on your home or car stereo .Or through your headphones in the train or on your bicycle.

If you like an mp3 player at the size of a packet of chewing gum, the iPod Shuffle is the answer. At the moment they come in 512 MB or 1 GB size, and a 2 GB and 4 GB iPod shuffle have been announced. Don’t be fooled by its small size as it sounds just as impressive it’s bigger brothers. The iPod shuffle has no LCD display like the iPod, iPod mini and iPod Photo. The iPod mini is a smaller colourful version of the normal iPod and come in 4GB and 6GB at present.

Not only the iPod itself is fantastic, but there are literally tons of super cool accessories available for this device.

For instance, one accessory called Roadtrip, made by Griffin Technology, is a dock you can fit in your car. The dock has a built in FM transmitter and will send out the music being played by the iPod through an FM signal. My car radio picks up the signal and blasts it out my car speakers.. How cool is that?!! You simply get in your car, slot in your iPod and turn the ignition key and off you go. The Roadtrip draws its power from the cigarette lighter. It can also draw its power from USB. That way you can use it to route the sound of your computer to your home stereo.

Another accessory for instance is AirClick, a remote control for your iPod or iPod mini. You can even get card readers so you can transfer the photos from your digital camera directly to your iPod. How handy is it to have 60 GB of storage with you if you like photography?

Since I bought my iPod I have been enjoying music more than ever before! I would like to recommend it to any music lover, its well worth the money.

iPodshoppers - Europe’s leading iPod and accessory stores online Please visit our website: http://www.ipodshoppers.com

“I love my iPod”

Before I go on, here’s the standard CYA…

I’m providing this as information only. It’s up to you and your tax professional to figure out if this is indeed a legitimate tax strategy for you. Now on with the show…

There are two principles at work here:

1) You have the right to deduct reasonable and necessary business expenses from your income before calculating tax on that income.

2) Continuing education to improve your business results has long been recognized as a reasonable and necessary expense.

So where does that shiny new iPod fit in?

If you’re like me, you have many hours of mp3 recordings on your hard drive– recorded conference calls, teleseminars, webcasts and other educational materials. I know I have well over 100 hours of such material on my hard drive.

There are also an increasing number of podcasts available dealing with business topics. Listening to those relevant to your business contributes to your ongoing business education.

There are also similar offerings on subjects like investing, tax planning, and so on.

Purchase your iPod through your business, and you can expense the total cost the year you buy it.

How’s this for leverage?

You (meaning your business) spends $200 for a new iPod. You write off the entire cost this year, reducing your taxable income by $200.

You load up that 4 hour webinar you’ve been meaning to get around to, and listen while commuting. You learn something that adds $200 to your bottom line immediately.

Congratulations! You just got your iPod for zero net cost.

And the iPod is so small and light that you can leverage a lot of dead time (commuting, waiting in line, workouts at the gym, etc.) into productive continuing business education.

And it even plays music!

Music to help you concentrate while writing that new article or newsletter.

Making that music a deduction on its own.

As one guru said, the proper question is not

“Can I deduct this?”

The proper question is

“How can I deduct this?”

John McCabe covers business topics like tax savings for the Success Letter, part of John McCabe’s Web Guides.