BlackBerry Curve 9370

Editors' rating: 3.5 out of 5

The good: The BlackBerry Curve 9370 runs BlackBerry 7 OS, and has a good 5-megapixel camera, 1GB internal storage, and a SIM card for traveling outside the U.S.

The bad: Unfortunately, the Curve 9370 lacks HD video capture, has uncomfortable side buttons, and is priced high for a phone of its caliber.

The bottom line: Verizon's BlackBerry Curve 9370 brings you BlackBerry 7 OS and a global-ready SIM slot in an ultraportable package. Unfortunately, some design flaws and a high price for an entry-level device make the QWERTY handset hard to recommend to anyone except BlackBerry devotees.

Motorola Droid 4

Editors' rating: 4 out of 5

The good: Motorola's Droid 4 shows that a dual-core, 4G LTE Android slider phone with a QWERTY keyboard is possible. With fast data speeds and a great typing experience, the phone also serves up pleasing call quality over Verizon's network.

The bad: By bartering its powerful components and swift data radio for a chassis of considerable size and heft, the Droid 4 proves that life is all about making trade-offs. It lacks the latest version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich, and its LCD screen lacks the oomph of AMOLED.

The bottom line: Melding an excellent keyboard, swift LTE data, and a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor into one Android device, the Motorola Droid 4 is long overdue. Fans of the first Motorola Droid will find plenty to smile about here, but those who aren't married to a QWERTY may not enjoy carrying around such a massive phone.

Dull colours in MS Word 2011 for Mac using *.doc format

I had a problem where I created a nice diagram in JPG format, but when I inserted it in my Word document the colours appeared dull and washed-out. This was using Mac Microsoft Word 2011 and saving the document in Word 97-2004 compatible format (*.doc). I tried many different ways to insert the image (including dragging and dropping it in), but all resulted in the washed-out image.



Saving the document as a Word document (*.docx) resolves the problem; but unfortunately I need to use *.doc format for backwards compatibility with my corporate clients.

Then I noticed that some of my earlier images in the same document were not washed out. How could this be? Reinserting these older images resulted in nice bright pictures in my *.doc document. So the problem had to be with the new images I was creating. I was using the same method I had always used to create images, but Word did not like my new ones. Something must have changed.

I quick check of the image properties, via the Finder, revealed the answer: The Color Profile



I had created the first images on my laptop which gave them a Color Profile of "Color LCD". The later images had been created on my secondary monitor and got a Color Profile of "DELL 3008WFP".

The Solution

The solution was to preview the image, on my laptop screen, and take a screen shot of it (using Command-Shift-4 and selecting the image). This screenshot had the required "Color LCD" Color Profile. I then dragged that screenshot into MS Word and the colours were perfect! Voila!!

World Chess Championship 2010: Topalov vs. Anand - Game 10

whitby pier

whitby pier
Originally uploaded by lomokev.