I had been personally using the BlackBerry Tour for the past 18 months, preceded by the BlackBerry Bold, BlackBerry Storm and BlackBerry 8800 Series.

Being a former BlackBerry Storm user, I really enjoy the larger touchscreen.  The large screen allows you to watch movies and videos without having to squint.  The biggest issue I had with the Storm was the SurePress technology, which required you to press on the screen rather than simply touching it.  This technology made it so that mistypes rarely happened; as the screen would show you what menu option or letter you were touching before confirming it by the finger press.  However, it made this BlackBerry model be rather slow to type on, thus an issue for any regular business user.  The touchscreen on the Torch is very precise and responsive, and in my opinion, better without this SurePress technology.

Even though the larger screen was very nice for media viewing, the lack of physical keyboard made the Storm a pain to use in a business environment.  Research In Motion has now solved that problem for me by adding the sliding keyboard to the Torch, which now gives me the best of both worlds.  The sliding keyboard allows the Torch to maintain the dimensions of the Tour or Storm, whilst offering the big advantages of both these models together.

BlackBerry 6, the new operating system launched with the Torch, brings the BlackBerry back to par with the other smartphone manufacturers out there.  RIM’s main focus has always been on emails and communication, but until recently had little support for media usage.  The new operating system offers a modern feel, a new level of social media and strengthened support for traditional media.  It also includes the new WebKit rendering engine makes browsing what it should be.  An additional feature is the Universal Search functionality which allows a user to type from the home screen, and search results (including menu options, messages, contacts, calendar events, documents, etc.) will appear for the user to choose from.  This allows the user to easily find what is needed right from the main screen.

To summarize, the new Torch merges the best qualities of all previous models harmoniously.  The large touchscreen, physical keyboard and new operating system really do make this, in my opinion, the best BlackBerry yet…

You are typing away in Microsoft Outlook, PowerPoint or Word, and midway through your text you realize that your CAPS LOCK is on.  Standard reflex is to erase all the CAPS and retype.

Fortunately, there is a feature to convert capitalized text.

Let’s say you type the following sentence with CAPS LOCK on:

• I AM A LEAF ON THE WIND. WATCH HOW I SOAR.

To correct, select the text, and press “Shift & F3″.

Using it once will give you:

• i am a leaf on the wind. watch how i soar.

Using it twice will give you:

• I am a leaf on the wind. Watch how i soar.

Hopefully this prevents you from having to retype long sentences…

Method 1

1. Start Windows Explorer
2. Go into “Tools”, “Folder Options”
3. Go to the “View” tab
4. Unselect “Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)”
5. Click “Apply” and “OK”

Method 2

1. Start Registry Editor (regedit)
2. For Windows Server:
   Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\Explorer
   For Windows Workstation:
   Go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
3. Set value of “ShowSuperHidden” to 1
4. Click “OK”
5. Exit Registry Editor

Note: You should always backup your registry before making any changes.

This will sound strange, but it works!!!

Important!!
Since we will deliberately corrupting the PST file, I strongly suggest that you make a copy of it first!

Step 1
Download a free ‘HEX Editor’. I’ve used the HDD HEX Editor.

Step 2
After making a copy of your PST file, open it with the HEX Editor. Delete the positions (using the space bar) 7 through 13.
(00007 – 00008 – 00009 – 0000a – 0000b – 0000c – 0000d – 0000e – 0000f – 00010 – 00011 – 00012 – 00013)

The HEX Editor will display the code “20″ for each position deleted.

Once done, save your PST file. It is now corrupted.

Step 3
Now, open up the ‘Inbox Repair Tool’ (scanpst.exe). The program is usually stored here:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\Mapi\1033\NT

The program will scan the PST, then make a backup. After the backup is done, it will repair the PST file.

For more information about this program, see: Microsoft Knowledge Base article 287497.

Step 4
Once complete, you can open the PST file with Outlook, and you will find your deleted emails have been restored!