Best setup of Apple IDs in a household?
Apple's FAQ does not seem to provide good guidance on using Apple IDs in a home with multiple people, particularly with the launch of iCloud today.
Here are the users/devices I have:
1) Me - iPhone 4 and iPad 2
2) Wife - iPhone 4 and iPad 2
3) Child1 - iPad 2
4) Child2 - iPad 2
To date, we have primarily used a single Apple ID for all store purchases (it isn't reasonable to think we would buy each app 4 times for example, and Apple's terms allow this kind of sharing in a household so it has been a good solution). Here are my goals:
1) Make syncing new content as painless as possible, whether it is apps, music, books, or other.
2) Allow each user of iBooks to read the same book and sync between their devices without messing up the page on other users' devices.
3) Allow each user to have their own iCloud email/calendar/contacts.
4) Allow sharing when desired between calendars and contacts.
5) Allow us all to share one Photo Stream using iCloud.
It does not seem like I am going to be able to meet all of these goals easily, particularly the last two. In my current setup, my wife uses a separate Apple ID for iBooks only. This allows us to meet the first two goals. The kids don't really use iBooks yet, but when they do creating separate Apple IDs for them would be a possibility.
For iCloud, it seems that we can either choose between 3 and 4, meaning that we can either all have separate IDs and separate mail/calendars/contacts, or we can all share. If iCloud would allow multiple accounts per device, then we could have one shared account and each also have a separate account. This would allow us to all put things on a shared calendar, but unfortunately we could not view each others' calendars for items not explicitly shared (sometimes my wife would like to determine if I am in a work meeting, for example). Perhaps the best solution is to have a separate provider for email/calendar/contacts, then to keep one Apple ID for iCloud which will act as the shared calendar/contacts (and basically would then be pretty useless for email). This would also enable 5 (one shared photo stream). It is unfortunate that I am forced to choose between either using the full features of iCloud myself (e.g., for personal email/calendar/contacts) or having robust sharing between family members. I may have it wrong though and I'm hoping others have found a better solution.
Any suggestions are most welcome!
iPhone 4, Other OS, iOS 5, iCloud
