Why does my Outlook not open some pics and stuff when I open it, My comp is new and cost $2,000?

Okay. I bought a really nice Lenovo X220 with all the bell and whistles for my staffing company. I was surprised to see that when I get emails from other businesses that the pics and links are represented by those little red "X"'s. I was used to that with my old laptop but this is a completely new machine with every new feature available loaded onto it. Why wont outlook show the pic, jpeg or whatever n the email? Do I have to be in some secret f'in club or something to have a decent Outlook experience or is Outlook just all F'ed up no matter who you are? I use gmail and two other webmail accounts and they don't aggravate my half as much. Is Outlook just a waste of time?