First time Mac user, help setting up OS X.

[asaj]

Just bought my first Mac, a 13" uMBP, and upgraded the RAM to 4gb and HDD to 500gb. I am installing OS X as I type this, and I have some questions regarding the best way to set everything up.

My wife and I will be using the Mac. We each have several email accounts, as well as our own iPhones. Should I set up an account on the Mac for her, and another for myself? It seems this would keep our email separate, which would be good. However, if we want to sync to the same iTunes library, and have access to the same pictures, can that be shared if we have separate accounts? For example, if I import all of my pictures while signed in to my account, will she have access to them from her account? I want to avoif duplicate copies of everything.

Also, we have MobileMe, so does that impact anything? We want to share a single calendar, and have it sync to both of our phones.

I think those are my big questions, I appreciate your help as I am totally new to Macs.

Thanks.

 

[andypullen]

My wife and I will be using the Mac. We each have several email accounts, as well as our own iPhones. Should I set up an account on the Mac for her, and another for myself? It seems this would keep our email separate, which would be good. However, if we want to sync to the same iTunes library, and have access to the same pictures, can that be shared if we have separate accounts? For example, if I import all of my pictures while signed in to my account, will she have access to them from her account? I want to avoif duplicate copies of everything.

Also, we have MobileMe, so does that impact anything? We want to share a single calendar, and have it sync to both of our phones.

The Mail application can support multiple email accounts, and each account is given its separate Inbox, Sent Box, and Trash, etc. Also, iTunes can sync with multiple iPhones. However, each account is tied to one (or no) MobileMe account. So if you have one each, the best way to do it would be multiple user accounts. If you have one MobileMe account that you both share (my wife and I do this), then you can very easily share iTunes & iPhoto libraries, as well as have synchronized calendars that are editable on any device (computers or iPhones) that are tied to the one MobileMe account. For example, we have a MacBook, an iMac and an iPod touch that all share the same MobileMe account, which means that all the contacts, calendars, bookmarks and mail accounts are in constant sync between all the devices.

For you, it might make sense to have two user accounts, keeping mail accounts totally separate, and placing your iTunes and iPhoto libraries in public folders, so that you can share them and it won't be redundant. Then you can use MobileMe to publish your calendars (if you have a family acct.) so you can see (but not edit) each other's calendars. Otherwise, you'll have to set up a CalDAV server, which isn't very straightforward. That might sound confusing, but either option is very simple, it just depends on how many MobileMe accounts you have, and what your preferences are.

 

[asaj]

Thank you so much for the reply, that helps a lot.

So sounds like the key is to put iTunes, photos, videos, etc, in the public directory, then any account would have access to them, correct?

For MobileMe, we will just have the one account. For us, we just want to share one calendar that we will use for everything. I guess we could always add individual calendars later, but for now, one master calendar, that we can both update from our own accounts and/or iphones, and have them sync via MobileMe everywhere, is what we are looking for. I realize that was a really long sentence, but hopefully you understand what I mean. Does that make sense?