Kodak DX7440: Exposure and Contrast issues

Hi everyone,
I just purchased a Kodak DX7440 camera (my first digital) and have been
putting it through it's paces to make sure I want to keep it (I have
about 4 more days if I want to return it...). So far my experience
with the camera has been so-so. It seems that a lot of my indoor shots
are underexposed. Even when the subject of the picture is exposed
properly, the surrounding area is very dark. Is this common? I have
tried boosting the flash and using some exposure compensation, and this
seems to help some, but not as much as I would expect.
The other issue has to do with outdoor shots. I did some test shots in
bright sunlight. Most of the pictures look better if I bring them into
Picasa2 and do a "Fill Light" operation, which lightens the dark areas
of the picture. It seems that if the bright areas of the picture are
properly exposed (or even slightly over-exposed), the darker areas
(shadows, etc) are almost black. Is this common with digital cameras,
or just an issue with this camera? I found a review that indicated
that this camera produces "high-contrast" images, so maybe that is what
is going on? Is there any way to correct this (other than fixing it in
Picasa). I really like all of the features of this camera, but I may
end up returning it if I can't work around these issues.

Thanks for any advice/tips!