You can customize your own 24-photo roll of a disposable-style camera in the D-Series app. Image: Hipstamatic

Traditional photography is, and always has been, a fairly intimate experience. Yes, there are photo-sharing apps that let you comment, like, and “heart” your friends’ snapshots, but the actual act of taking a photo is still very much personal.

Synthetic, the team that brought us the photo apps Hipstamatic and Incredibooth, wants to change that. Launching this Thursday, the company’s new Disposable Series iOS app — or D-Series, as it’s called — is a free program that hearkens back to the...

When musicians first laid eyes on the iPad, they immediately recognized its huge potential as a music-making machine. The versatility of the touchscreen quickly gave rise to a bevy of synths, drum machines, multitrack recording apps and otherworldly, touch-sensitive instruments.

And while making music on the iPad is still mostly about the apps -- Animoog, Korg iElectribe, NodeBeat, GarageBand, Sunrizer, JazzMutant Lemur -- the tablet becomes even more useful if you can plug other stuff into it.

At first, we only had the ability to plug in guitars and microphones to record songs. But now, ever...