Sharing an iPad

Do you really want to share your mail?

In the Mail app that's installed on iPads, you can add multiple e-mail accounts. However, anyone who has access to the iPad can read each other's e-mail that way. Hopefully you trust each other and it's not a problem. If you want to keep your mail private from others using the iPad, you could just use webmail if you have Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, Gmail, etc. There is an app you can use for Gmail mentioned below which is about the same as accessing Gmail on the website, but it has a passcode and it's fast to switch between Gmail accounts.

Keep your Gmail Private on an iPad

I have been trying out an app called Mailboxes on the iPad as it lets you create a user ID for each person that can be protected with a 4 digit passcode. Each person can then add one or more Gmail accounts that they can access once they 'log in' to Mailboxes with their user ID. I like this app for accessing Gmail for the most part, but it's occasionally buggy.

In the Dropbox app, you can only have one person signed in, and I haven't found a way to sign out of it. I would say to use a Dropbox account that doesn't have anything private on it, then other people in the family can create a folder in their own dropbox accounts and share it with the Dropbox account that is logged on the iPad, then they can at least access that shared folder on their account on the iPad, and it will be in their own Dropbox as well.

There are also apps that let you connect to multiple Dropbox accounts like Quickoffice Pro HD, so it might not matter. I do not use the official Dropbox app too much myself.

It's a challenge for multiple users sharing an iPad if they want to play the same game and the game doesn't allow for multiple profiles. I am going to start a list of games for the iPad that allow for multiple profiles. So far, some of the ones I know about are Plants vs. Zombies HD, and many Big Fish games. For some board games or card games, it might not matter if the game doesn't have multiple profiles because it starts a new game each time.

When a game on the iPad saves progress and does not have multiple user profiles, it is impossible for my husband and I to play it at the same time without a lot of frustration. The only option in this case that I can see is to have one person play the game until they beat it, then delete the game and readd it, or choose to start a new game if the game has that option. Or, you can both play the game on the iPad (like Angry Birds), but keep track of your scores/levels on paper.

My husband and I both use Evernote all the time to take notes on just about anything because we know we won't lose the notes. Evernote saves data online so that you can access your notes from different devices including Macs, PCs, iPads (of course), iPhones, Android Smartphones, etc.
We both wanted to use Evernote on the iPad, but I signed on to Evernote first and couldn't find a way to sign out for a little while. Never fear, you can sign out of Evernote on the iPad, it just may not be readily apparent (see below for details).

Signing out of Evernote on an iPad
With the Evernote App open on the iPad, click the icon that looks like a satellite at the bottom right hand side of the screen. A settings window will appear with a Logout button at the top.
When you click the Logout button, say 'yes' to the prompt you are sure you want to log out, then it will take you to the screen where you can Sign in to Evernote--Someone else can then sign in to Evernote with their account and log out when they are done. It is annoying that you have to put in your full username and password each time you want to sign in, but at least it lets you switch accounts!