Anyone good with Apple products?

I've just bought an iPad for myself and my wife to use. It'll be used mainly for playing games, watching videos and a bit of word processing, etc. Also for keeping the toddler distracted on long car journeys.

We both have iPhones with our individual Apple IDs but what I want to know is how best to set up the new iPad.

Should I use my existing Apple ID or create a new one?

What I'd ideally like is for us to be able to share photos to the iPad from our phones and to use my Apple Music subscription.

What I don't want to happen is for things like reminders and email accounts to be shared on the iPad. I don't really want my wife seeing a reminder saying "Remember to pick up tickets to the theatre" when it's a surprise for her birthday.

What's the best way to go about this?

I think you'd be best to set up a third account then link them together in "family sharing" which (again, I think) will allow you to share content like music but limit what you don't want Mrs Hire to see.

Maybe read up on family sharing first to check I'm correct.

Yep that's one way but if you want to share photos from an existing account it may be easier to just share that account on the iPad. You don't technically need family sharing as icloud and itunes accounts can be different if required.

Remember you can select whats syncd and what isn't in settings and now you can delete many of the standard apps so if you not using mail, notes, reminders you can just delete the apps as well.

Thanks guys.

I've used my existing ID, as it's the only way to keep access to Apple Music without paying again.

I've turned of iCloud syncing for all the things I don't want though - iMessage, mail, reminders, etc.

Apple products can work really well together, provided you know precisely what you want them to and are then willing to spend the time figuring out how to get them to do it.

You can use your Apple ID but any other mobile number, email address etc. We do this as originally work messages fro my phone were popping up on the iPad at home, and Facetime intended for the iPad was also ringing on my phone