Since iPad is not a multi user device,

Question

I'm interested in how other users deal with this.
My 1st iPad (I'll purchase more) is a coffee table device available to family and friends. Since I have many Apple products and confidential information that I don't want to share with friends/family/friends of family, I have taken the follow steps:
1. Not synced with Mobile Me, even though I subscribe, I don't want other people to sync to my master computers/databases. They can't make changes to my personal data.
2. I created a new email ID only used by the iPad. All mail sent by "other people" are sent from this ID.
3. Create Mail rules to forward general purpose family email to the iPad email ID.
4. Create subfolder/smartfolders of contacts, calendars, photos, etc and just download those subsets during sync.
5. Entrys into the iPad calendar upload into my master calendar but don't change anything I have set.
6. Contacts contain a small subset of family, friends. People that the typical user would email.
The iPhone, iPod have all been "personal devices". Information loaded wasn't as critical because that device was in one's personal possession. The iPad in many cases crosses that line into a multiuser device with single user support. All your personal data shouldn't be loaded for others to see/modify.
Your thoughts?

Answer 1

It's true, Capt. Fred, there's no security as yet on the iPad. Pages doesn't even let you save anything with a passcode. There are third party apps that will secure things (like +Documents to Go+ and Safe ) so you can secure files if you want to. You can also, of course, secure the entire iPad as you could the iPhone. It even has that feature that wipes the whole thing clean after 10 wrong password entries. But other than that, the whole thing is open and it does not support more than one user. There has been discussion of that elsewhere in this forum. In order for the OS to support a Windows or Mac like multi user account system, the thing would need to get a bit more complex than Apple wants just now, I think. But as more and more users migrate to the iPad for pretty much full time use, there will be more and more clamoring for more complexity and functionality. So it's a matter of time, I think. Already Apple is going to multitasking in the upcoming OS 4.0 upgrade for iPad and latest iPhones. My only question is, will my first run iPad support these inevitable future upgrades? We'll see, I guess. Sure hope so.
Message was edited by: StevePug2