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Level 1

41 points

Sharing an iPad (Last straw if true)

So I am an Apple super user. my wife and I have:

27" iMac
15" new MBP
iPhone 4S
iPhone 5
iPad 3 64 3G
a bunch of iPods

My wife has the iPhone 5, and her own iTunes account. The iPad is on my account. She bought an book the other day in iBooks, and asked me "can I read my book on the iPad"?

I said "sure" and tried to do something I have done in the past. Logout my account, log hers in, go to iBooks and sync. However this time when I did it, it said if I sync, it will not be able to you the apps from my last account for 90 days.

I assume this is some anti-theft thing that has been added to iOS.

My question is how do I allow her to read the book she bought from Apple, on the iPad she owns, that we bought from Apple.

If the answer is "you can't without buying the book under my account", I am going to be very unhappy.

Thanks in advance,

Jeremy

Posted on Mar 19, 2013 7:38 PM

Best reply

Skydiver119

Level 9

53,405 points

Posted on Mar 19, 2013 7:50 PM

I will make you unhappy. Content is tied to the Apple ID. And iPads were created to be single user devices used by adults, so there is no support for multiple accounts with different content or levels of access.

An alternative.....maybe you can check hte e-book out from your local library and read it that way without buying another copy?

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17 replies

JeremyR Author

Level 1

41 points

Mar 19, 2013 8:39 PM in response to Kiwiphone4

Kiwiphone4 wrote:

You can circumvent this by going into the bookstore, and redownloading the book again individually.

Well I assume so as this is how I transfer app purchases, one by one.

Nope, that was the next thing I tried 🙂

JeremyR Author

Level 1

41 points

Mar 19, 2013 8:47 PM in response to Skydiver119

Skydiver119 wrote:

That was my impression too. That you get the app free from iTunes, but buy from amazon directly, so there is no 'in app content' and no loss of revenue for Amazon. Just my impression however, I've never bought books from them.

But if it works, it woudl be a way to legally and easily share the content across devices, books anyway.

Yes, For future purchases we could avoid using iBooks. However I find iBooks to be a better reading experience then the Kindle App.

We could also buy another iPad. I have owned an iPad 1 16Gig wifi (came free with a car), iPad 1 64 3G, iPad 2 64 3G that have all gone the way of eBay.

I could give my wife the iPad 3, and get an iPad mini, but it's more the point of it all that bothers me. While Steve Jobs controlled the user experience, he did so in a way that he thought gave the user the best experience (right or wrong). He did not allow color in QuickTime until it was done right. he did not allow multitasking in iOS until it was done right. Apps don't have serial numbers on OSX, because that's just annoying.

When Apple went with Apple maps over Google Maps, that was a choice to help Apple, not to help the User. When Apple put this block in place, that was to help Apple, and not help the User.

The philosophy at Apple is changing, and as a very long time Apple user and fan, it's just a little upsetting.

Sharing an iPad (Last straw if true)