iPad Pro Zip files, FTP, Documents, Notes, Local iTunes Music.. How to handle all this?

[Drecca]

I really want to switch from my rMBP to an iPad Pro. I tried to in November and hit a few frustrating speed bumps and returned it, unsure if I wanted to keep it at that point.

I use the rMBP for more management-type stuff work. Documents, spreadsheets, video meetings, etc. Very little in the way of using the horsepower apart from the occasional Starcraft 2 game. So I really think getting the next rMBP will be a waste of money. I can probably sell the 15 inch rMBP and buy a new iPad Pro + some sort of Windows box for when I rarely game.

That said, there is some stuff I do that I wasn't easily able to do on the iPad pro, and wondering if people/apps have gotten better at these :

1 - Zipping, unzipping files. Customers send and receive these often. In OSX I just right click and compress. How can I do this on the iPad Pro?

2 - Are there any good FTP/SFTP apps on iPad Pro? In OSX I just click/drag in filezilla, done. Easy.

3 - I use simple textedit notes files for general usage. I figure the Notes app would generally do the same thing. But I value being able to move to another platform if I need to. So I figure google apps or something would be best here?

4 - Last thing that I was really frustrated with is that I own all my music and store it locally on itunes. My car's system can't manage Spotify, only the default music player on my iPhone. In OSX, I just have the music in iTunes and it syncs to the phone. How do I manage this with an iPad Pro?

Basically, the lack of accessible filesystem on IOS seems scary to me. I get the impression everything I need to do on it is doable, if I'm willing to go about it in a roundabout way. Hope that makes sense

 

[Peepo]

I really want to switch from my rMBP to an iPad Pro. I tried to in November and hit a few frustrating speed bumps and returned it, unsure if I wanted to keep it at that point.

I use the rMBP for more management-type stuff work. Documents, spreadsheets, video meetings, etc. Very little in the way of using the horsepower apart from the occasional Starcraft 2 game. So I really think getting the next rMBP will be a waste of money. I can probably sell the 15 inch rMBP and buy a new iPad Pro + some sort of Windows box for when I rarely game.

That said, there is some stuff I do that I wasn't easily able to do on the iPad pro, and wondering if people/apps have gotten better at these :

1 - Zipping, unzipping files. Customers send and receive these often. In OSX I just right click and compress. How can I do this on the iPad Pro?

2 - Are there any good FTP/SFTP apps on iPad Pro? In OSX I just click/drag in filezilla, done. Easy.

3 - I use simple textedit notes files for general usage. I figure the Notes app would generally do the same thing. But I value being able to move to another platform if I need to. So I figure google apps or something would be best here?

4 - Last thing that I was really frustrated with is that I own all my music and store it locally on itunes. My car's system can't manage Spotify, only the default music player on my iPhone. In OSX, I just have the music in iTunes and it syncs to the phone. How do I manage this with an iPad Pro?

Basically, the lack of accessible filesystem on IOS seems scary to me. I get the impression everything I need to do on it is doable, if I'm willing to go about it in a roundabout way. Hope that makes sense

1. GoodReader can handle zipping and unzipping files. It will also email them directly from the app or you can open in outlook for example.

2. Transmit is good for FTP/SFTP.

3. Heard google apps doesn't work good on IOS. Try a program called Drafts 4

4. Can sync music the same way.

 

[M. Gustave]

3 - I use simple textedit notes files for general usage. I figure the Notes app would generally do the same thing. But I value being able to move to another platform if I need to. So I figure google apps or something would be best here?

Word or OneNote, and save to your free OneDrive online.

4 - Last thing that I was really frustrated with is that I own all my music and store it locally on itunes. My car's system can't manage Spotify, only the default music player on my iPhone. In OSX, I just have the music in iTunes and it syncs to the phone. How do I manage this with an iPad Pro?

If you're keeping a pc or mac around, you do it the exact same way, sync to desktop iTunes.

If you want to be 100% "pc free", I would strongly encourage you to join Apple Music. You match and/or upload your entire collection, then it's all available to stream or download whenever you want it. Save a copy of everything on an sdcard first though, obviously, and put it in a safe place.

As has been discussed here many times in the last week, iPad is clearly intended to use cloud storage for many things. I haven't used a desktop computer in over six months, and I don't find any task difficult or frustrating on my iDevices. I don't see anything in your list that requires a pc, but YMMV...

 

[tgara]

I really want to switch from my rMBP to an iPad Pro. I tried to in November and hit a few frustrating speed bumps and returned it, unsure if I wanted to keep it at that point.

I use the rMBP for more management-type stuff work. Documents, spreadsheets, video meetings, etc. Very little in the way of using the horsepower apart from the occasional Starcraft 2 game. So I really think getting the next rMBP will be a waste of money. I can probably sell the 15 inch rMBP and buy a new iPad Pro + some sort of Windows box for when I rarely game.

That said, there is some stuff I do that I wasn't easily able to do on the iPad pro, and wondering if people/apps have gotten better at these :

1 - Zipping, unzipping files. Customers send and receive these often. In OSX I just right click and compress. How can I do this on the iPad Pro?

2 - Are there any good FTP/SFTP apps on iPad Pro? In OSX I just click/drag in filezilla, done. Easy.

3 - I use simple textedit notes files for general usage. I figure the Notes app would generally do the same thing. But I value being able to move to another platform if I need to. So I figure google apps or something would be best here?

4 - Last thing that I was really frustrated with is that I own all my music and store it locally on itunes. My car's system can't manage Spotify, only the default music player on my iPhone. In OSX, I just have the music in iTunes and it syncs to the phone. How do I manage this with an iPad Pro?

Basically, the lack of accessible filesystem on IOS seems scary to me. I get the impression everything I need to do on it is doable, if I'm willing to go about it in a roundabout way. Hope that makes sense

RE #3 and Notes, keep in mind that you can set up your Apple devices to sync with Microsoft Exchange. Notes is one part that will sync (in addition to email, calendar, contacts, and tasks) with your Apple gear. I do this, and in the Notes app on my Apple Devices there is an additional account for Exchange. It makes accessing notes from my work PC very easy. Edits on existing notes, as well as new notes and deletions are synced very quickly.

Regarding a file system, use of cloud services is the best way as mentioned above. I use a combination of Dropbox (for personal stuff) and OneDrive (for business stuff). For example, I was out of my office last week, and my secretary emailed me a draft Word document to review, edit, and sign. Working from my iPhone, I saved the document to OneDrive, opened it in Word, made a few edits, and saved it. I then "printed" the Word document as a PDF, saved it to OneDrive, opened it in Adobe Fill and Sign, added my signature, and saved again. I then attached the signed document to a reply email to my secretary. I did all this in less than 10 minutes on my iPhone.

One thing to keep in mind is that you will need an internet connection for doing most things, so you will have to plan ahead and save some documents locally if you are going to be on an airplane for a few hours or in a remote location without internet access, for example.