Just looking at a Verve makes you want to own one. According to Olympus, it was designed to look as though it had been forged by the force of water. The Verve has rounded corners and looks sort of like a rectangle that has been unevenly skewed off to the right. It has a kind of organic look and feel that I found to be more ergonomic than its rectangular counterparts. The Verve lends itself to a more natural grip when you’re ready to capture an image into your hand. The lens is concealed behind a silver-rimmed circular door that opens and closes flush to the camera’s surface. This is one sexy little digital camera.

Six different colors

In addition to the shape are the six different colors it comes in which are black, blue, red, silver, copper, and white. And although some of the colors may differ, do you begin to see a similarity with another wildly successful consumer electronic product? Think “iPod Mini” from Apple. There’s just something about the iPod Mini that makes it stand out in the crowd of mp3 players and I believe that Olympus may have done exactly the same thing with their Verve.

The Verve is chocked full of the features consumers look for in a digital camera such as built-in flash, red eye reduction, a good 4-megapixel rating, 1.8 inch LCD screen, seamless optical and digital zoom, plus an assorted array of features available through its on-screen menu. These include image effects that let you resize, rotate, convert to black and white or sepia tones, and stitch up to 10 frames for a panorama effect.

You can also shoot full-motion videos and sound, their length depending on how much memory you have available on the removable xD Picture Card (a 16 megabyte card is included in the box). And while many of these effects are found on the other cameras, Olympus has put all of them into a tiny package that just looks and feels better. When you power on the Verve for example, you hear the sound of an automobile engine starting up. Or you can configure it with other power-up sounds and screens. You can also use any photo in its memory as a startup image you’ll see when you power on the camera.

No software problems

Olympus includes software for both Windows and Macintosh as the camera works on both platforms.

Even without installing the Olympus software, OS X on the Macintosh will instantly read the images onto the desktop when using the included USB cable.

Olympus even includes an audio and video cable so that you can see and hear everything on any TV set with composite video and audio-in jacks. An included battery charger powers the camera’s Lithium-Ion battery.

Be sure you check out the Verve from Olympus.

This is one little camera that lives up to its name. $349.99.

www.olympusamerica.com

Craig Crossman is the host of the radio show “Computer America,” (http://www.computeramerica.com/) heard nationwide.

Send questions to him at ccrossmancomputeramerica.com or 340 S. Ocean Blvd., Suite 4B, Palm Beach, Fla. 33480. Please include your phone number.)

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(c) 2004, Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.

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PHOTO (from KRT Photo Service, 202-383-6099): CPT-COMPUTE

AP-NY-11-24-04 0619EST