iPad - no user accounts?

[sapporobaby]

I'm sure there is, but I'm also sure that it lives in a murky world, about which I know little. I just want Apple to give me something that seems so obvious - legitimate individual user accounts.

Why, oh why, does Apple seem unable or unwilling, time after time, to give it's customers something so often desired?

I'd email Steve, but I hate terse replies.... so I'll just wait. For me, the iPad is great, but lacking, and so I couldn't wholeheartedly recommend to my friends, based on there being no individual user accounts. I'm sure that it will come, I just have to be patient...

Peter

If you consider the Apple App Store murky then so be it. I'm gone from this thread. Go be patient. I'm out of here.

 

[ukpetey]

If you consider the Apple App Store murky then so be it. I'm gone from this thread. Go be patient. I'm out of here.

I wrongly assumed that, since nobody has just told me directly that such an app is available, and named it, that it would entail a jailbreak. Jailbreaking is not something I'm keen to do.

If there is an app on the Apple App Store that will allow multiple user accounts, please tell me it's name so I can buy it! I've searched the store but cannot find it!

Peter

 

[Phil A.]

There is an app that allows for the creation of individual user accounts....

Do you have a name or a link for this app? I can't see anything in the App Store that would allow that

No, I don't. iOS is built on Unix, Unix has built-in support for user accounts. There's already a "root" user on iOS. It wouldn't be difficult to make accounts a part of the GUI, and it wouldn't require access to a visible file system.

The issue then would be apps' data: at the moment, each app has it's own sandboxed "file system" which it can read from and write to. It's actually a subdirectory in the following location /ApplicationRoot/ApplicationID/ and apps are free to do what they want within that sandbox.

However, to implement user accounts, you'd need a different subdirectory for each user within each application sandbox (so that one user's data wouldn't be visible to others) and the OS would also need to transparently map this user directory to the standard app location so that apps wouldn't be broken by this new structure.

I'm not saying it can't or won't be done, just that it's a bit more complex than may at first appear, particularly with having to maintain backwards compatibility with existing apps

 

[maturola]

iOS is by design a multiuser OS.
In fact the system app runs as root user and all other apps run as the user "mobile".

it's just up to Apple to add an UI to support multiple user logings and fast user switch… but the basics are already in place.

that's not correct, user are CHROOT root, not system root, and the user Mobile is a unique user for the sandbox, just because the user is not call "root" doesn't make it OS multiuser, still is a singel user.

 

[Corndog5595]

I agree, and I feel anyone who does not is just no accepting the obvious.

A small touch is obviously a pocketable personal device.

A Phone (with you mobile account) is obviously a pocketable personal device.

The iPad is much more a home / coffee table device that anyone in the family may pick up and use.

You would not expect a family of 5 to have 5 iPads, but they could all have a phone.

This is great, till you get games, with high scores and they only give 1 name as the player, or emails, or web browsing favorites etc etc.

Perhaps some more memory in the device would be idea first.

But I really really feel that being able to log in with your name onto the iPad would be useful to many families and avoid security worries, or kids deleting parents items etc etc.

Perhaps it will come in time.

It all depends how Steve Jobs sees the iPad as a device, at the moment he see's it only like a giant iPod Touch, which it's not. It's much more than that.

Stop double-spacing your posts. It's extremely annoying.

 

[lexbrooks]

Stop double-spacing your posts. It's extremely annoying.

I thought it made it easy to read, I say keep doing it.

 

[sapporobaby]

Darn. I forgot to unsubscribe from this dumb thread.

Fixed....

 

[DiamondMac]

Darn. I forgot to unsubscribe from this dumb thread.

Fixed....

Guess that makes you the moron

 

[ciaran00]

On a side (not completely unrelated) note, permissions problems in Mac OS drives me bonkers!

 

[BornAgainMac]

Windows tablet can have multiple user accounts. I suggest that for now. iPad is strong at other things.

 

[adbe]

The issue then would be apps' data: at the moment, each app has it's own sandboxed "file system" which it can read from and write to. It's actually a subdirectory in the following location /ApplicationRoot/ApplicationID/ and apps are free to do what they want within that sandbox.

However, to implement user accounts, you'd need a different subdirectory for each user within each application sandbox (so that one user's data wouldn't be visible to others) and the OS would also need to transparently map this user directory to the standard app location so that apps wouldn't be broken by this new structure.

You can easily remap those paths via symlinks in real time. You don't even need to symlink each app at user switch, just have the apps point to a global dir such as

/Mapped/ApplicationRoot/ApplicationID/

When the app is first installed the local path is redirected to the global directory tree. If /Mapped itself is a symlink though, you can retarget the entire directory tree on the fly.

Dealing with multiple accounts in iTunes *is* the biggest problem. Though when it comes to syncing, the iPad seems to be far more promiscuous than other (or at least pre iOS4 - I haven't actually tried syncing my phone against another iTunes turret) device that I've used.

 

[adbe]

On a side (not completely unrelated) note, permissions problems in Mac OS drives me bonkers!

Why? Unless you're doing odd things, or your system is unstable, you should never need to worry about them much. If you're doing UNIXy things, then they're no more or less annoying than any other permissions scheme.

 

[ukpetey]

Darn. I forgot to unsubscribe from this dumb thread.

Fixed....

PLUS... you forgot to tell me exactly which app from the Apple App store will allow me to have separate user accounts on my iPad... too busy unsubscribing "from this dumb thread" to put your money where your mouth is?

Peter

 

[borekk]

Bump from the netherworld...

I would love to hear the name of this mystical multi-user account app that will let me share an iPad across my family. I did recently find that one called 'Switch'. Let's you set up multiple users, but only within a web browser. Would be ok I guess, but not really what I'm looking for. Hoping to find some kind of core multi-user ability, even if it's a jailbreak app.

 

[Macshroomer]

Bump from the netherworld...

I would love to hear the name of this mystical multi-user account app that will let me share an iPad across my family. I did recently find that one called 'Switch'. Let's you set up multiple users, but only within a web browser. Would be ok I guess, but not really what I'm looking for. Hoping to find some kind of core multi-user ability, even if it's a jailbreak app.

Me too, I am trying to figure out how to share this with my wife. It might be a case of she syncs the iPad to our Mac Pro and I continue syncing my Iphone 4 to my Macbook Pro.

If there was any one device that Apple makes that needs user accounts, the iPad is it.