This Handy Robot Holds a Pen and Writes Exactly Like You Do No time to write out letters and thank you cards? Leave it to a bot named Bond.
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Meet Bond, a cyborg with an impressive grip on penmanship -- yours or anyone's.
This boxy bot's express purpose is to write letters and thank you notes on your behalf. Remember letters? Those pre-Snapchat relics of the past that not many people take time for anymore, least of all busy business owners. Yeah, those.
Can't swing sending them? Leave it to Bond. With a fancy black fountain pen clamped in its robotic "hand," the nimble robot writes out every word of each personalized correspondence its tasked with. It signs them, too, so you don't have to. Then its team of humans, the enterprising people at the New York City-based startup Bond, neatly tuck the bot's letters into envelopes, seal them with a golden seal of wax (regal crown-shaped Bond logo included) and even address, stamp and mail them for you.
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Signed, sealed, delivered -- time saved. And all those loyal friends and customers you've been meaning to personally thank will appreciate the written sentiment...and they'll never know that a funky robotic forger did the deed for you. At least that's the idea.
"Most business people truly do care about their customers, but as they get more customers, they lose the ability to stay in touch," Bond founder and CEO Sonny Caberwal says. "Bond lets you deliver the personal touch, at scale."
How it works: First you go to Bond's website from your smartphone or computer. (Caberwal says a Bond iOS app is coming this summer.) You can either have a letter written by Bond in one of five prefab handwriting styles or you can use your own handwriting. For the second -- and way cooler -- option, you fill out a handwriting sample form, scan it and email it back to Bond and the bot learns your writing style. Either way, you have to enter the complete text of your letter on the website so Bond knows what to write, along with the address(es) to send it to.
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Using Bond's pretty prefab handwriting is free, but hiring Bond to write just like you isn't cheap. The fee for Bond to acquire and store your handwriting is $199. Whichever you choose, individual cards cost $2.99 and up to send, plus postage. The customizable cards come in a bunch of trendy stationery styles and are less expensive if you order in bulk. You can also add your brand logo to them at no additional cost.
We can see the service coming in handy for newlyweds, salespeople, marketers and for anyone tasked with sending umpteen invites, thank yous, holiday cards or insert whichever time-consuming written correspondence you don't want to deal with.
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"I think everyone can think of a time they meant to send someone something to say thanks, but didn't," Caberwal says, "not because they didn't care, but because they didn't have a card, pen, envelope, or stamp. Our goal is to make sending a beautiful, personal, and tangible note as easy as a text message."
To see Bond beautifully reviving the lost art of the handwritten note -- hands-free -- check out the videos below:
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