Here are the best MacBook for students this 2021.
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How to rename files in bulk on Windows 10
Alongside opening and moving files, renaming them is one of the core functions within Windows 10’s File Explorer. This is a simple process if you’ve just got one or two – just select it and choose ‘Rename’ from the menu at the top of the screen – but can become tedious if you need to rename lots at the same time.
Whether it’s to give them a more meaningful name or change the extension all at once, renaming in bulk can be a useful tool when managing files. Fortunately, there are three ways you can do just that in Windows 10.
How to rename files in bulk using File Explorer
It might not be obvious, but you can still use File Explorer to rename files in bulk:
- Open the File Explorer app and locate the files you want to rename
- From the menu at the top of the window, click ‘View’ and make sure ‘Details’ is selected
- Click the ‘Home’ tab to go back to where you were and click ‘Select all’ (you can use the CTRL + A shortcut here if you prefer)
- Click ‘Rename’ from the Home menu and type in the name of the first file
- Hit Enter. File Explorer will now give all the files selected a similar name, using a number in brackets to differentiate between them. In the example below, all the files are clearly identifiable as being a ‘screenshot’, but also clearly a separate file
Unfortunately, this process doesn’t work when changing the file type on bulk. You can tick the box next to ‘File name extensions’ under the view menu, but you’ll then have to change them one at a time. It’s also worth making sure you don’t convert a file into something that can no longer be opened, like a .jpg to a .doc.
If you’d prefer, you can also bulk rename files using PowerToys on Windows 10.
Microsoft’s Winter sale features price cuts of up to $430 on the Laptop 3 and Surface Pro 7
Don’t miss Microsoft’s latest sale if you’re looking for Surface Pro deals this week – you can save big on premium Surface Pro and Surface Laptop devices.
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Amazon Fire TV Stick Lite review
Amazon is continuing to grow its line of Fire TV sticks with the introduction of an entry-level streaming device – the Amazon Fire TV Stick Lite.
The Amazon Fire TV Stick Lite is the cheapest model available so far, but it does come with some sacrifices to keep the costs down. It also features the new version of the Fire TV interface introduced at the end of last year – also seen on the 2020 version of the Fire TV Stick.
But are the compromises worth the lower price? Let’s find out.
Design and Build
The Fire TV Stick Lite boasts an almost identical design to its brethren, with a compact rectangular shape. It can be plugged directly into your TV or attached via the HDMI extender which is included in the box.
The stick is powered by being plugged into the mains via the USB-C slot, though if you have a USB port with enough power, you can power it directly via your TV. To set up the software you’ll need a Wi-Fi connection. If this isn’t possible, Amazon does offer an ethernet adaptor.
All-in-all, the Fire TV Stick Lite itself is rather discreet and can be hidden away neatly. The matte black finish is inconspicuous and will blend in with most TV setups.
Set-up is extremely easy – simply plug it in, log in to your Amazon account, connect to your Wi-Fi network and then choose which apps you want to download.
Alongside the stick, you also get the all-important remote. On here you can control playback (playing, pausing, forwarding and rewinding), navigate to the homepage, go back a step, turn on the Alexa voice assistant, bring up the settings and scroll through the various bits of content on the homepage.
Whilst the design looks refined, I would say that the buttons on Roku remotes are much better for accessibility because of their colours and chunky look and feel. However, Amazon does support voice control directly through this remote – something that the budget Roku ones do not.
The remote on the Lite version has some key differences to the traditional Fire TV Stick – namely that it has no volume controls and no power button.
This means that you can’t use the Lite remote as your sole controlling device. You’ll either have to use it in conjunction with your classic TV remote, or with your phone using the Fire TV app. If you’d prefer to control everything on the Amazon interface with just one remote, then consider one of the more expensive streaming sticks.
In addition, the device only goes into sleep mode either after a period of inactivity or by manually selecting it in the settings. Sleep mode isn’t the same as powered off – if you want to do this you’ll have to unplug it or turn it off at the wall.
The Alexa voice assistant is mostly pretty responsive to most commands. I only had one occasion where it got confused, but otherwise, it recognised film titles, playback options, the ability to open apps and more.
Software, Compatibility and Performance
The stick can only steam content at either 720p or 1080p at 60fps with support for HDR, HDR10+ and HLG. If you have a 4K TV and want to get the most out of the resolution, you’ll need a 4K Fire TV stick.
Audio is another compromise on the Fire TV Stick Lite. The standard Fire TV Stick has support for Dolby Atmos, whilst the Fire TV Stick Lite only supports Dolby Audio via pass-through HDMI.
Depending on your TV and audio setup, the difference may not be that noticeable – but if you have a good sound system or are a real audio buff, it’s worth spending the extra dosh for the standard Fire TV stick.
The Amazon Fire TV Stick Lite has 8GB worth of storage for all the apps and games that you want to add. The most popular ones are all available here – Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney Plus, Now TV, BritBox and YouTube.
In the UK you can also watch local catch-up services such as BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub, All 4 and more. Meanwhile, users in the US can stream the likes of HBO Max, Hulu, Starz and Sling.
The interface of the Fire TV Stick Lite boasts a clean grid layout. The main menu sits in the middle of the screen when you first load up, and you get tabs for your featured apps and games, recommended video channels, recommended apps and more. The home screen also keeps track of your six most-used apps for quick and easy access.
You can manually search for titles by using the ‘Find’ tab, however, it’s much quicker and easy to do this via Alexa voice control than spending the time typing out a show/movie via the on-screen keyboard.
In addition, there is a ‘Live’ tab, which will open the standard TV apps which you can use to watch live broadcast TV (iPlayer, ITV Hub) as well as any Twitch channels that you’re following.
You can add profiles to Amazon Fire TV so you can sign in and keep your tastes tailored to what you’re watching. There’s room for up to six profiles on one account, and you can quickly switch between profiles by clicking on the icon on the top left.
This may seem obvious, but you’ll only get the most out of Amazon Fire TV if you have an Amazon Prime Video subscription. Lots of the recommended content on the interface is from that particular streaming service, and this may get annoying if you’re not already a Prime account holder.
There’s a sponsored tab right in the middle of the interface with some odd apps on there, including Just Eat and Now Music. It was annoying that this took up room on the homepage, especially considering that they were quite niche apps for Fire TV.
If there’s a website that doesn’t have an App equivalent on the Fire TV Stick, then you can use the Amazon Silk web browser to get it up on the big screen. However, it is quite awkward to use and video playback can be glitchy.
There was the odd occasion where the stick took ages to recognise my home Wi-Fi network after being disconnected from the internet. It did so eventually – but this is something to be aware of.
Pricing and Availability
The Fire TV Stick Lite comes in at a price of £29.99/US$29.99 – the cheapest streaming stick offering from Amazon. During sales in the past, the price of the stick has dropped as low as £17.99 – an absolute steal.
In the UK, you can buy it from Amazon UK, Currys, John Lewis, AO and Very. Meanwhile, in the US you can purchase it from Amazon US, BestBuy, and .
However, the main Fire TV Stick is only £10/$10 more expensive than the Lite version. With that, you get better audio compatibility, volume controls and a power button.
If we’re looking at price equivalents, the main competitor here would be the Roku Express. However, this remote doesn’t have built-in voice controls. In addition, Roku does lack some key apps that Amazon has, such as Twitch. On the other hand, the Roku remote includes hot keys to streaming services such as Netflix.
You can also check out our list of the best streaming devices.
Verdict
The Fire TV Stick Lite is the streaming stick for you if you want the basics – you don’t have any need for 4K streaming, and you don’t have an advanced sound system. All you want to do is get the apps on your TV for the cheapest price possible.
However, the lack of volume controls and power button may be an annoyance to some. If these things are deal-breakers, then we recommend forking out the extra cash for the standard Amazon Fire TV Stick, as it’s not a big jump up in price.
Specs
Amazon Fire TV Stick Lite: Specs
- Media streamer
- 1.7GHz quad-core processor
- 8GB storage
- 802.11ac Wi-Fi with MIMO
- Voice Remote included
- HDMI extender included
- Support for Dolby Atmos, Dolby Digital+
- Output: 720p or 1080p up to 60fps
- 86 x 30 x 13 mm
- One-year warranty
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Nvidia is making it less confusing to buy an RTX 30-series gaming laptop
The GPU maker will require OEMs to list performance specs on product pages following ‘Max-Q’ fallout.
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Cyberpunk 2077 and No Man’s Sky slammed by Ori director over ‘lies and deception’
Ori and the Will of the Wisps director has called out Cyberpunk 2077, Peter Molyneux and No Man’s Sky for overhyping video games and then underdelivering.
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Best kids’ tablets 2021
The best tablet for your child will depend on their age. LeapFrog and Kurio make tablets which are well suited to young children from around 3-6. When kids reach around 6 or 7, they no longer want what they see as a ‘toddler’s tablet’ and will start asking for something a bit more grown up.
Amazon Fire tablets
Amazon, though, has an answer for all ages in its range of Fire Tablets. We’ve reviewed and compared every single current Amazon Fire tablet, so you can read more about them.
The latest model is the 2020 Fire HD 8 which has a few updates over the previous 2018 model including a faster processor, more RAM, better battery life and USB-C charging.
As well as the HD 8 – 8 refers to the size of the screen in inches – there’s a Fire 7 and Fire HD 10. All Fire tablets are available as ‘Kids Editions’ which are more expensive than the standard tablets.
That’s because they come with a rugged case, a two-year warranty that covers accidental damage, plus a year’s subscription to Amazon Kids+ which gives them access to a fairly good range of apps, games, videos and books. You may or may not decide that these things make a Kids Edition tabletworth the extra money.
But even the standard versions come with the same excellent parental controls, a hand-curated safe web browser, and ability to create different accounts so siblings can share it.
This means you do not necessarily need to buy the Kids Edition, especially if your child is already around 7 or older.
However, it’s crucial to understand that Amazon Fire tablets are not Android tablets. They do not have the Google Play store or any Google apps on them. Instead they have Amazon’s Appstore and you have to watch YouTube via a web browser.
You can use a workaround to install Google Play, but this – in our experience – leads to disappointment as some apps (Snapchat, for example) simply don’t run very well on Fire tablets because they’re not powerful enough or the app experience isn’t good because the tablets mostly have sub-par cameras.
Apple iPads
You children will no doubt already know what a ‘proper’ tablet is like because they’ve borrowed your iPad or Android tablet. That’s one reason we’ve included latest iPad mini and iPad 10.2 here. The latter is actually cheaper than the iPad mini, starting from £329 from Apple. If you can find a refurbished iPad mini on Apple’s website, these can also be a good option.
If an iPad becomes available as a hand-me-down, that’s great: your child will be over the moon even with an older one. Not too old, mind, as really old ones may not support some apps or have poor performance. Another issue is that they’re quite fragile. But, Apple’s App Store has the widest selection of apps and games, many of which are free.
You can buy and disable Safari (to prevent web browsing) and restrict music, videos, apps and games to the appropriate age level, so they’re actually quite a good choice for kids. Just know that their parental controls aren’t as comprehensive as on tablets designed specifically for kids.
Android tablets
If you’re not going to buy any of the models already mentioned, you could go for a standard Android tablet intended for adult use. Then you’ll have to install a parental control app to ensure kids don’t see things in apps or online that you’d rather they didn’t. When kids are using tablets, keep in mind how much screen time is healthy for children.
Best kids’ tablets 2021
1. Amazon Fire HD 8 (2020)
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The Fire HD 8 has a bigger, better screen than the Fire 7 and it’s also around 30 percent faster. There’s also more RAM, more storage and you can expand that by up to 1TB using a microSD card.
Another difference is that it has stereo speakers and a USB-C port for charging. Alexa is built in and she’s hands-free even if the tablet is asleep with the screen off.
You have the option of the standard Fire HD 8 or a Plus model which costs £20 / $20 extra. For that, you get wireless charging and an optional dock which, in addition to charging the tablet wirelessly, enables Show Mode. This means it works just like an Amazon Echo Show and, with Alexa on-board, you can use it for video calls, music videos and watching Amazon Prime videos.
Of course, that’s not something a child will care about, but it means the tablet could do double duty if you were also thinking of buying an Echo Show.
As with all three sizes of Amazon tablets, there’s a separate Kids Edition of the Fire HD 8 which costs £139.99 / $139.99. It comes with a bumper case, year’s subscription to Amazon Kids+ and a two-year accidental damage warranty.
While overall performance and camera quality isn’t the best here, for the money it’s hard to beat.
Read our full Amazon Fire HD 8 (10th gen) review
2. Amazon Fire 7 (2019)
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The Fire 7 is best known for being the cheapest tablet around that’s worth buying.
The 2019 model is still the current one and has double the storage of its predecessor, a slightly better front camera and you have a choice of three colours.
It’s no hotrod in terms of performance, but it’s still the best tablet you can buy if your budget will stretch only to £50 / $50.
The Kids Edition comes with the same benefits as the Fire HD 8 and HD 10, but costs double at £99.99/$99.99, so isn’t quite as tempting as the standard Fire HD 8 which is simply a better all-round tablet.
Read our full Amazon Fire 7 (2019) review
3. Amazon Fire HD 10 (2019)
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Although it’s quite a lot more expensive than the Fire 7 and Fire HD 8, Amazon’s biggest tablet has a sharper screen, better battery life and like the latest Fire HD 8 now has a USB-C port and the potential for faster charging if you use a 15W charger (a lower-power charger is supplied).
Performance from the updated processor is a bit better, but it’s still obviously a budget tablet, something that’s evident from the plastic build and mediocre cameras.
For entertainment, however, it’s a great device with decent speakers and a headphone jack (which all three Amazon tablets have).
The Kids Edition costs £199.99 / $199.99 and comes with a bumper case, a year’s subscription to Amazon Kids+ and the two-year warranty that covers accidental damage.
Read our full Amazon Fire HD 10 (2019) review
4. Apple iPad 10.2in (2020)
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Older kids will certainly appreciate being given an iPad, but it’s the most expensive option here.
Nevertheless, the latest 10.2in tablet is relatively good value at this price. Just note that it only has 32GB of storage, and that isn’t expandable. The next step up – 128GB – is a lot more money.
It could be tempting to look for a used iPad, and that’s fine if it’s relatively recent, but watch out for older models which aren’t compatible with the latest version of iOS and which can’t run some of the newer apps.
This 2020 model is the 8th generation, but you can still buy – at the time of writing – the very similar 7th generation model for under £300 / $300, so if you can find one of these discounted at retailers who are shifting stock of the previous model, they can be good value.
Getting back to the software, this new iPad 10.2 will get iOS updates for several years to come, and also (like the 7th-gen) supports the Apple Pencil, which kids love to use.
Read our full Apple iPad 10.2in (2020) review
5. Apple iPad mini (2019)
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You’d be forgiven for assuming a smaller iPad would be cheaper, but the new iPad mini is more expensive than the 10.2.
But it does come with 64GB of storage as a minimum, so it could be the better choice if you know your kids will install loads of apps and games, take lots of photos and videos.
There’s also support for the Apple Pencil, just like the iPad 10.2.
Read our full Apple iPad mini (2019) review
6. LeapPad Ultra XDi
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The specially built-for-kids LeapPad 3 and LeapPad Ultra XDi are similar in specs and functionality. The larger, 7in, Ultra XDi has twice the storage as the 5in LeapPad 3 but younger children may prefer the 3’s smaller size and weight. We think their upper-age range is six or seven rather than Leapfrog’s claimed nine, but our eight-year-old tester still enjoyed her time with both.
Software can be more expensive than other tablets, but the advantage of Leapfrog software is that it has been built by educational PhDs with both fun and learning in mind.
Just bear in mind that once your child has outgrown the kids interface, there’s no ‘proper’ one to switch to.
Ultimately, we feel it’s best to buy a tablet that children can grow into, but if you like the price and your child is younger than seven, it isn’t a bad choice.
Read our full LeapPad3 and LeapPad Ultra XDi review
What to look for in a kids’ tablet
The advantages of a specially designed kids’ tablet include a ‘safe’ web browser (or no internet access) and pre-loaded games and apps which are appropriate for kids.
What they don’t tend to have is a wide choice of the latest games. The LeapPads, for example, are great tablets, but your kids might be frustrated when they can’t get the same games or apps their friends have on Android or iPad.
And that’s why we rate Amazon’s range of Fire tablets so highly. You can set up password-protected profiles so you can give each child access to only the books, games and apps you want them to see.
You can set different time limits for reading and playing on an Amazon tablet. The fact that the range starts from just £49.99/$49.99 and for the most part gives you access to the popular games that kids want to play.
Admittedly, as they get older, they will quickly discover missing apps: there’s no doubt that Amazon’s selection is not as broad as Google’s.
Specifications
It’s best not to dwell too much on specs as they rarely tell you how good a tablet is for a child. Two things you should consider are battery life and screen size.
Many kids’ tablets last around half the time of an iPad – which is about five hours. They can, of course, use their tablet while it’s charging, but it’s worth avoiding any that don’t charge over USB as this makes it awkward to power them on long car journeys. Amazon Fire tablets do charge via USB.
Younger kids might struggle with the size and weight of a 10in tablet, which is why the Amazon Fire 7 is a good choice all round. Its 7in screen is just the right size for small hands.
Rather than looking at processor speeds and RAM, read our reviews to find out if a tablet is fast enough to keep up with your kids. Gigahertz ratings aren’t a helpful guide in this respect.
How much storage do I need?
A third important aspect is storage. If the tablet you’re considering has no microSD card slot, you’ll have to start deleting apps, music, photos and more when the internal storage is full. It pays to get as much storage as you can, but it’s still important to have a microSD slot. Memory cards are cheap and even if a tablet doesn’t let you install apps on it, you can still use it for photos, videos and music.
Some tablets have 32GB or even 16GB of storage. That’s enough if storage is expandable, but we’d caution against it if not. Videos and games can quickly eat up 32GB of storage.