Syncing - A new iPad user

[Andy_B]

I am about to get an iPad 2 32 gb WiFi.

I and my wife both have iPhone 3GS and have our own profiles sync'ed on our own Laptop iTunes. I want to set up a single iTunes account that shares our apps etc so that either of us can use the new iPad as if it was our own. Can this be done? If so, how? Feel free to point me in the direction of this information if it is already explained elsewhere. Thanks

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[DefBref]

By 'own profiles', do you mean your own iTunes accounts or just different libraries? If it's the latter it's easy, if it's the former it's complicated.

[Andy_B]

Sadly it would seem....we have separate iTunes accounts. It seemed a good idea at the time.

[DefBref]

It's still possible but can be a bit of a pain, especially when it comes to updates. Me and the wife share the same account which makes it a lot easier.

You will need to sign in to one of the accounts and download what you want, then sign into the other account and download again. As you can see this can become complicated when updates are available.

[Andy_B]

I assume that means I will have to pay for the Apps twice.

Could I take the one with the most apps (let's call that Phone A) and reconfigure the other phone (Phone B) for the Phone A account. Once Phone B mirrors Phone A, I could then add the apps lost from phone B to the 'master' account which would at least reduce costs and make updating easier.

Not sure if I know what I'm talking about....if its rubbish, please say so.

Thanks for your help with this

[DefBref]

Your problem is you still have apps from two different accounts, thus making it necessary to keep swapping accounts to keep things up to date.

[jsh1120]

Sadly, this is one of the many implications of the Apple "philosophy" that the iPad is a "personal device," much like a smartphone. (Consider the difficulty of "sharing" an iPad with a six year old. It would be delightful to create a specific profile or account for my daughter that limits her to her apps, her music, etc. Not an easy task.)

In your case, however, I think you may at least be able to take advantage of the iTunes "home sharing" feature that will allow you to combine yours and your wife's music libraries and synch them with the iPad.

Frankly, I'm not sure if it will meet your needs, but through home sharing, I'm able to create separate playlists from my wife's computer and my own and download them to the iPad without constantly going back and forth between our accounts.

You may have to experiment to see if it meets your needs.

[Andy_B]

Thank you both for your views and advice.
I get the iPad next week so I will play around with a few options you have suggested and see what works best. Benefit of hindsight - I think I would definitely set both phones up as my own devices if I had to do it again.
Still, with apps so cheap it's not the end of the world!
Thanks again.