how much?

Would you pay $7,800 for a suitcase full of carbon fiber and aluminum tubes? No, me neither, but clearly somebody will, or Shadowcam wouldn’t be hawking its crazily-priced S–5 camera stabilizer, a three-axis gimbal rig that would keep your shots steady even if you stood on a vibrating table with a bowl of jello on your head.

Finally, the perfect gift for the myopic or sight-impaired person in your life! It’s called the U See Tablet Magnifier, and it’s a stand that turns your iPad into a giant, zoomable, battery-powered magnifying glass for short-sighted folks like me.

This is another “why has nobody done this before” product. The mBAck is a small, bus-powered USB 3.0 hard drive that mounts onto the stand of your iMac.

The Good: Fantastic idea
The Bad: Those prices. LOL

Would you like a Leica, but don’t-a like-a the price tag? You could do what I did, and buy a $70 Leica strap for your cheap-ass $1,300 camera. Or you could buy this cute Leica-inspired SD card holder. Price: a mere $185.

Grove was last seen on these hallowed pages when I wrote about the SkateBack, an iPhone 5 rear panel fashioned from the offcuts of old skateboards. Now I actually have a skate-derived case in my hands. It’s still for the iPhone 5, but it’s a full case, not just a rear panel, and it comes in the same shape as Grove’s bamboo cases.

It’s pretty good. It’s also $150.

We last saw Miniot making the rather hot MkII wooden Smart Cover for the iPad. Now it’s back with this equally stylish Miniot Book for the iPhone 5. The Book uses the same clever bendy wooden hinge as the iPad case, and adds in a rather smart protective “box.” And one thing is certain: Our wood-obsessed editor John Brownlee is gonna freak out over this.

The iPhone camera is already so much better for utility photography than a regular camera, why not use it to replace your scanner, too? That’s the idea behind the ScanDock, a combo stand, lighting rig and companion app for scanning pretty much anything on paper.

Leica, once a camera manufacturer that made great tools for photographers and now little more than a boutique fashion brand catering to dentists, has just played a fantastic little joke on the world. It’s called the X-Vario, and it proves that Leica thinks you’re a sucker. Why? Because it’s a $3K compact.

Question: Do you associate complexity with value? That is, do you think that an object is worth more if it uses more parts in its construction? No? That’s absurd, right? But try this: the No.002 bag from Clean Everything is made from a single sheet of leather, cleverly cut and folded to form a bag. The price? €289, or $385.

The Unmonday 4.3L is a $700 ceramic AirPlay speaker which comes with its own leather carrying case. It is gorgeous, and if you want to use it to its full potential, you’re going to have to buy another four of them.

The MagSafe 2 power plug is so intent on escaping from its socket that it doesn’t seem a great idea to hook it up to a portable battery, but if you need the extra power, you need the extra power. And right now pretty much the only way to get it is to grab one of QuickerTek’s MacBook Air batteries.

Just when you thought an iPhone or iPad dock had been built into every possible household object, here comes the iRocking Chair. In looks, it's a pretty traditional rocker, but it has some surprises built in. Not least is the fact that it can charge an iPad 3.

I'm a sucker for bags, and — like TV's Dexter — I have come to be at peace with my darker side (I'm just starting season 4 though, so maybe he gets all crazy after becoming a father and everything). I realize that no matter how many sleeves, totes, backpacks or messenger bags I buy, it will never be enough.

I haven't yet started bagging up the old, discarded models and tossing them into the Gulf Stream to be carried off to a watery grave far away, but it can't be long. In the meantime, help talk me down from dropping almost $200 on this simple but gorgeous wool and leather sleeve.

Adobe has launched new, simpler versions of its Elements editing apps for the desktop: Photoshop Elements (photos) and Premier elements (video). These are already cut-down versions of Photoshop and Premier, and are already simplified, but the newer versions go further still.

Was the $14 iPhone macro lens a little too rich for you? If you can’t afford to drop the price of a cheap lunch onto a DIY photo accessory for your $650 phone, then perhaps I can interest you in Zaheer Mohiuddin’s $1 version.

That’s right: a $1 macro lens for the iPhone (or iPad). The only work you’ll need to do is take a walk to the dime store and find a roll of tape.

Oh man, I can totally see myself taking this mechanical Bluetooth keyboard to the local bar and clackety clacking out a few posts every morning. It’s called the KBtalKing Pro and it is a rather clever little beast, a pro keyboard which is designed to work with – and switch seamlessly between – up to ten of your devices.

Why carry just a tiny iPad charging brick and a few miniature USB cables to juice all of your gadgets when you could instead schlep this huge "Portable Charging Station with Cable Rack" along with you instead? That’s what AViiQ hopes you’ll do, and it also wants you to pay $80-$100 for the privilege.

Case manufacturers are finally realizing that we don’t want to smother our skinny iPads inside fat, padded cases. And now even high-end, "luxury" accessory makers are offering slimline covers which are not only lovely to look at but also practical enough not to tear off the iPad and toss away in a fit of rage.

Today we take a look at Pielframa’s Smart Case, a rather hot take on Apple’s own Smart Cover.

Oh, man. Today is totally turning into Kickstarter day here on Cult of Mac. The latest accessory from everybody’s favorite crowd-funded idea factory is the Brydge, another keyboard case which will turn your iPad into a miniature MacBook Air-a-like.

This case has a little twist, though. Instead of offering an entire laptop-shaped shell into which you can drop the tablet, it has a clever hinge which holds the iPad and uses it as the entire lid of the clamshell case.

For anyone who spends a lot of time in trains and planes, noise-canceling headphones are pretty much essential. But if you’re walking the streets, then noise canceling can be a pain or even a hazard, isolating you a little too much from your environment.

Luckily, the Able Planet Linx Audio Clear Harmony headphones sound pretty good with noise cancelation both on and off. And they’re also comfy enough to keep on throughout a long journey.

What do you get if you rip the back off a cheap plastic Holga camera and gaffer-tape it to the front of a $25,000 Phase One digital camera back? You get the $25,000 Holga aka The Holga-Cam of the Apocalypse, a 22-megapixel beast that shoots exquisitely high-res images through a low-fi plastic lens. I love it.