Image via Tinder

As previously reported by Wall Street Insanity, the Tinder app, launched in October, takes the possibility of rejection out of online dating by allowing users to rate potential matches based off of looks, and only matches those who are mutually attracted to one another. Tinder compiles users’ photos into a virtual Rolodex that is presented to others of the opposite sex. Users never know if someone passes on their photos, and none of their “likes” are notified unless there is a mutual attraction. But if two people like one another and are in each others’ geographic regions, the app allows them to chat.

Tinder also rates compatibility based off of Facebook data—including shared friends, interests, networks and location. Plus, since Tinder requires a login through Facebook, it uses the social network’s profiles to help establish users’ identities. At the same time, it doesn’t share anything back to Facebook or post anything to users’ walls.

Now Tinder has released an update that allows users to customize who they’re looking for. Users can now filter photos by age, a much-requested feature. Version 2.1 also integrates a feature which allows Tinder users act as match makers. Since users are already signed in to the app through Facebook, they can select two friends and introduce them through the app, allowing them to chat inside Tinder.

“We’re trying to filter out the noise associated with dating,” co-founder Justin Mateen told Mashable.

The update also implements faster chat speeds, so users no longer have to wait for messages to load, as well as other bug fixes.

Image via Bang With Friends

The man behind more than 200,000 booty calls has finally revealed his identity. Since the launch of the Bang with Friends app, 28-year-old Colin Hodge has remained anonymous. But he’s now publicly claiming his creation, along with co-founder Omri Mor.

Why design an app that helps Facebook friends have casual sex with one another? Is Hodge just horny? He believes he has provided a much-needed service.

Image via Twitter/Colin Kirk Hodge

“Everybody has at least one friend that they’ve had an eye on,” said Hodge.

And Bang With Friends allows Facebook users to take their secret crushes to the next level. The app shows users photos of their Facebook friends. They can click a button below the profile pictures of friends they would like to screw, without fear of rejection. The app will only notify friends who have mutually chosen one another.  Hodge says the app has attracted more than a million users who collectively log in about 70,000 times a day.

Hodge, a former Cornell computer science major, says he thought of the app while working on the dating site HeardAboutYou. Apparently a lot of women were complaining they couldn’t find casual sex partners without looking like hos.

“After a few drinks the whole conversation turned to let’s just simplify this,” Hodge told Valley Wag. “We decided, hey everybody has at least one friend that they’ve had an eye on.”

After deciding to link the app to users’ Facebook friends list, Hodge says he and Mor came up with the “racy logo” and make the app as “funny and straightforward as possible.”

Alas, all has not been smooth sailing. When Bang Your Friends was launched for iOS, it was suddenly removed from Apple’s App Store, with Apple citing “excessively objectionable or crude content.” A glitch in the app, in which users can see which Facebook friends have registered with the app—has also been revealed.

So why reveal his identity now? It was actually an accident. Hodge says he and Mor had hoped to remain anonymous until some time in the future where they could be unveiled on a late-night talk show. But during New York’s Internet Week, the two were nominated for King at the Webutante Ball, and their names were released on the online ballot.

The founders are turning lemons into lemonade, however, and now plan to launch an Internet Week-inspired Bang With NYC event, including an opening party downtown. During the event, hot and horny singles can meet and hang out with the co-founders. Maybe it should be called Bang the Founders, instead.

“Coming out of anonymity doesn’t change our product vision,” Hodge told Digital Trends. “This allowed us to meet people that we wanted to, but overall we still want to offer the most honest way to meet somebody.”

Image via RAWBKNY/Kickstarter

Crowdfunding site Kickstarter has introduced some amazing products, allowing them to be rolled out to the masses instead of being stuck in someone’s garage. But is “Wooden Keys for Macbook & Desktop” one of them? Touted as “a wooden keyboard made from rosewood and bamboo, crafted to bring back natural aesthetic and tactile function,” the project looks pretty slick. But the “wooden keys” are nothing more than decals.

Sure, the decals are actually made of rosewood and bamboo, cut to about a half-millimeter thick, but when it comes down to it, they’re still stickers. And at $40 a pop, they’re expensive stickers.

Design firm RAWBKNY is trying to raise $25,000 on Kickstarter to take the product into mass production. And although a few backers have bitten, the project has a long way to go. With 18 days until the Kickstarter deadline, only about $10,000 has been pledged. Some of the awards offered to backers are a little peculiar, too. Those who aren’t willing to shell out $40 for the full set of wooden key decals can pledge just $15 and receive “a small set of keys,” including caps lock, enter and spacebar. Why the hell would anyone want to transform three keys, leaving the rest their traditional hues?

Still, the $25 pledge award is somewhat promising. RAWBKNY will offer a wooden skin made from rosewood or bamboo for the iPhone 4/4S or the iPhone 5, complete with the user’s initials. A “wooden” phone skin sounds a lot better than some “wooden” decals to stick on the keyboard. Can you imagine typing with cruddy hands? Cleaning such a keyboard would be next to impossible.

Image via Lev Radin/Shutterstock

Donald Trump has thrown his checkbook—and his face—behind new crowdfunding site FundAnything. Looking like a clone of Indiegogo and Kickstarter, the startup site was founded by “serial entrepreneur” Bill Zanker in an effort to bring crowdfunding “to the masses.” FundAnything allows users to seek funding for just about anything under the sun, provided it’s decent, of course. Launched on May 6, the site already has more than 200 projects raising funds for everything from lifesaving surgeries and college classes to adoption expenses and documentary filmmaking. Trump sees the site as a way to help people who have been “bullied by the economy.”

Zanker created the site to put a populist twist on the popular trend of crowdfunding, but felt that “bringing a concept to the masses takes star power.” So he contacted Trump, with whom he worked on the book, “Think Big and Kick Ass in Business and Life.”

“Crowdfunding got traction with creatives and tech, but you go anywhere but the coasts and they don’t get it yet,” Zanker said. “What I’m trying to do is bring crowdfunding away from the Brooklyn hipsters and bring it to the masses.“

Not only does FundAnything allow all sorts of projects without excluding or screening them first, but each week some lucky fundraisers will be chosen as Trump’s favorites and receive his personal financial backing. “Donald’s Picks” during the first week include $25,000 awarded to Celeste Buckingham’s new CD and music videos, $15,000 to fund a party for children affected by Hurricane Sandy, and $40,000 to fund a lung transplant for a Canadian Cystic Fibrosis sufferer. Trump awarded the funds at a Trump Tower Event May 8 where he gave out suitcases full of cash.

I gave away money. Go to FundAnything.com to see how I’m helping people. #FundAnything #Entrepreneurs #GiveBack

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 8, 2013

“Everyone knows Donald is a genius businessman,” Zanker said. “We’re not talking about politics here. If you want to fund anything, there is no better person in the world to have supporting you than Donald Trump.“

Unlike other crowdfunding sites, all donations made on FundAnything are awarded to the project, whether it meets its fundraising goal or not. The site then takes a 9-percent matchmaking commission on projects that don’t meet their goals and just 5 percent on fully-funded projects.

Anyone want to fund my trip to Fiji?

“We all have single friends. Some of whom might hit it off with each other. Now you can introduce those friends to each other on Facebook.”

A new app has made its way to Facebook and utilizes your friends’ relationship statuses to “take the guesswork out of online dating.” With the proliferation of social media networks and online dating sites, I’m surprised no one has thought to mix the two before, but never fear: it’s finally been done.

Called ‘YouShouldTotallyMeet,’ the app sounds a bit like a sorority girl invention and claims it “relies on the power of friends to help you meet someone special.”

The app attempts to appeal to aspiring matchmakers everywhere—see that girl? She’d be perfect for your friend Jack who just can’t find a decent girl online. See that guy? He looks nice, unlike that Match.com jerk that Susie went out with last weekend.

And, because friends sign up friends, not themselves, the app goes a little further to ensure that Patrick is actually the charming Harvard graduate he presents himself as and not a serial rapist in disguise.

“Take the guesswork out of online dating,” the promo video advertises. “Feels good to make your friends happy, doesn’t it?”

With your favorite sad single friend in mind, you can create a profile that details your friend’s likes and dislikes and explains what kind of person they’re wanting to meet. Before setting yourself up as official wingman for their dating life, you should, however, probably check with your friend to ensure that they’re up for the app.

In a news release, YouShouldTotallyMeet co-founder Haley Taylor explained the inspiration behind the service. “We [my co-founders and I] saw an opportunity to use Facebook as a way for single people to have fewer bad dating experiences.

“By being set up with mutual friends of friends, it’s a way to ‘kiss fewer frogs,’ so to speak.“

The app just launched a few weeks back, so it’s still in the early stages, but that doesn’t mean you have to wait to introduce two of your mutual friends who you think might have wedding bells in their future.

Care to play Cupid, 21^st-century style? Sign your single friends up for the service today.

Image via Glowing Plant

Imagine one day walking down a street lit by rows of trees rather than street lamps. Bioluminescence, the emission of light from a living organism, has fascinated humans since the beginning of time. Why do fireflies glow? What makes deep-sea animals produce light in areas where the sun’s rays never shine? Scientists eventually answered these questions, but now they hope to transfer bioluminescent qualities to other organisms, namely plants, using genetic engineering. Genome Compiler Corp., the firm behind the Glowing Plant project, plans to inject luciferase, an enzyme found in fireflies as well as some glowing bacteria and fungi into the DNA of a small plant called Arabidopsis, a member of the mustard family.

“Inspired by fireflies… our team of Stanford-trained PhDs are using off-the-shelf methods to create real glowing plants in a do-it-yourself bio lab in California,” said project leader Antony Evans. “We live in a world that is generating too much carbon dioxide. Nature has figured out ways of creating energy that don’t require so much CO2 use, and what we really want to do is awaken people to the potential of that. Instead of having all these expensive street lights, why don’t we get plants?”

And the team doesn’t plan to keep its creation to itself, either. The Glowing Plant campaign was launched on crowdfunding site Kickstarter April 23 with a goal of $65,000. With 29 days remaining in the campaign, it has already garnered more than $271,000 in pledges from 4,733 backers. And it’s not just the novelty of the project attracting support. Backers pledging at least $40 will receive their own batch of glowing plant seeds in 2014. Plus, if the campaign reaches $400,000 in pledges, then backers who pledge $150 or more will also receive the next phase in the project, a glowing rose.

The Kickstarter project is by no means the first glowing plant produced by scientists. In 2008, a group from the University of California created a glowing tobacco plant using luciferase, and in 2010 researchers at the University of Cambridge made bacteria glow bright enough to read by in the dark. But the Glowing Plant project is the first to offer seeds to the public, something environmentalists are stringently against.

“We object to this distribution with no oversight. It’s an irresponsible move,” Jim Thomas, Research Director of Montreal-based Action on Erosion, Technology and Concentration, told the Wall Street Journal.

In fact, Friends of the Earth US and Action on Erosion, Technology and Concentration wrote to the Genome Compiler asking that the seed shipment be blocked, stating it would cause “widespread, random, and uncontrolled release of bioengineered seeds” that pose “real world risks to the environment.”

The groups fears aren’t totally unfounded. Introducing any foreign species into the environment has its risks as they may have few native competitors and can become invasive, outcompeting indigenous species for nutrients, space and light. The introduction of foreign species can also threaten native species with extinction through genetic pollution if the two are unintentionally hybridized. In fact, although the genetically-engineered seeds are legal to sell in the United States, they are illegal in Europe and cannot be shipped there, according to the Kickstarter campaign.

But Omri Amirav-Drory, CEO of Genome Compiler, says he will not take the seeds off of Kickstarter.

“It’s legal, it’s ethical, it’s beautiful and it’s important and we’re not going to stop what we’re doing,” he told the Wall Street Journal. “You can always ask for 50 years of field tests, but that seems unreasonable. Nature is always making new stuff. Companies are constantly engineering new crops with resistance to pests.”

In fact, the Glowing Plant team chose the Arabidopsis plant as its subject because it is unlikely to spread into the wild. It’s a non-native US plant, so there is little risk of cross-pollination, it doesn’t survive well in the wild, and it self-pollinates so birds and bees are less likely to spread its DNA.

Still, as cool as the idea of a glowing plant may be, it makes you wonder if spreading its seeds might not be some sort of Pandora’s Box. After all, remember what happened in “Jurassic Park?”

Image via Sprizzi

For coffee-connoisseurs everywhere, the Keurig was an invention sent from the espresso gods to provide a perfect cup of heaven at the press of a button. K-Cups became legendary among coffee suppliers, and suddenly the invention was a world-wide phenomena: no kitchen was complete without one.

For soda lovers, the Sprizzi could be the newest deity in the realm of kitchen appliances. Push a button, instant soda? Sounds like the American way.

The machine, roughly the same size as a coffee maker, is advertised as “the most advanced beverage and soda dispenser in the world.” The space-age-looking device automatically chills water and carbonates drinks, and, as marketed, dispenses soda with the simple insertion of a “flavor bullet”—the soft-drink equivalent of a k-cup—and the press of a button.

The concept is taking off on Kickstarter, where it’s described as “versatile, practical, economical and beautiful.” The creators call Sprizzi an ideal invention for the kitchen, game room, office break room, or even for your dorm—any room in which you need instant soda in your life.

It’s cheaper than the corner store, at $0.35 per “standard flavor” soda and $0.75 per specialty or energy drink pour. Each 2-ounce bullet produces about 16-ounces of liquid, so for New Yorkers, this gadget will provide an excellent way to say “suck it, Bloomberg” while sucking on your generously-sized homemade sugary drink. And, with one a day, it will take enthusiasts two months to try every flavor—Sprizzi has over 60 different varieties on tap of not only soda but also juices, iced teas, lemonade, sports drinks and flavored water.

Note that you’ll have to replenish both flavor bullets and CO2 cannisters, but the product markets its ease of use and instant-gratification aspects as incentives.

Sprizzi comes in “White Ice,” “Black Beauty” and “Silver Streak”—but if you join the ranks of the munificent backers who pledges more than $397 to the cause, you can be one of the lucky owners of the limited-edition Sprizzi machine in “Killer Chrome.” (So far, no one appears enthralled enough to do so.) Lesser backers are also rewarded with motivation such as t-shirts and free flavor bullets.

The Kickstarter page promises weekly home supply delivery to ensure that consumers never have to wait to drink. There’s even an app for more convenient order placement.

Michael Breault, founder and CEO of the Sprizzi Drink Co., cites his 12 years of dedication to the project and heads up a team of five people aspiring to build the Sprizzi legacy. As of Thursday night, the Kickstarter project had 36 backers with a net pledge of $7,000. The 30-day project goal, which began countdown on May 1, is $25,000.

A dude wearing the same shirt for 100 days? Thanks, but I’ll pass. Guys tend to get smelly, and that shirt would have to stink like a high-school locker room, right? Not according to fashion startup Wool & Prince. The New York company claims it has developed the perfect shirt for men who hate doing the laundry. Amazingly, the button-down Oxfords aren’t composed of some super space-aged material, either. The shirts are made of fine wool.

Wool? Like clothes your grandpa wore that were hot and itched like hell? Not in the least. Wool & Prince spent months developing its trade-marked Cotton-Soft wool using the finest wool shirting yarn available, typically only found in the luxury fashion industry.

Not only are Wool & Prince shirts light and airy, but they’re durable. Wool lasts six times longer than cotton, and its natural crimp makes it extremely resistant to wrinkles. Still, a shirt worn more than a day or two is going to smell, right? Apparently not. Wool is more efficient than cotton and other materials in absorbing sweat and allowing it to evaporate into the air. And sweat itself has no odor. The stench comes from bacteria that feed on it. So if the sweat evaporates, there’s no BO. Granted, Wool & Prince doesn’t advise skipping showers, because then the BO will be from you, not the shirt.

Wool & Prince founder Mac Bishop put his reputation on the line by wearing a Wool & Prince shirt for 100 days straight in a social experiment. A company-made video depicts him walking around the streets of New York asking pedestrians what they think of his shirt. And you know what? It still looked clean and wrinkle-free. Of course smelleo hasn’t been invented yet, so we can’t comment on that aspect, but none of the interviewees in the video were grimacing or holding their noses.

Image via Wool & Prince

And just in case you think Bishop may have cheated, he wasn’t the only dude to test the shirt for 100 days. The company actually commissioned 15 researchers to take the 100-day challenge, wearing the shirts for activities such as backpacking, biking and dancing. The researchers were pleased with the fabric, but asked for shirts with slimmer fits, different patterns and softer materials. And Wool & Prince obliged.

“I crumpled the shirt into a ball and put it in the bottom of my backpack when I am running around the city just to see if I can ruin it. No luck–it comes out ready to wear every time,” shirt researcher Aaron Flack said.

To finance its first production order of at least 300 shirts, Wool & Prince turned to Kickstarter. The company set an original goal of $30,000 in pledges by May 22. But with 21 days to go in the campaign, it has far exceeded its original target, with more than $167,000 in pledges. Obviously backers are impressed with the product and want to see it launch to market. But based on the pledges being made, it looks like most backers really want to get their hands on one of those shirts. Of the 1,161 backers thus far, only 116 have pledged a dollar amount—anything less than $98—that does not offer a shirt as a gift. In fact, 678 backers have already pledged enough to receive one Wool & Prince shirt in their choice of color. Another 281 backers will be receiving two shirts in exchange for their $190 pledge, and 93 people will receive three shirts for a pledge of $280 or more.

Wool & Prince is offering three sweet lamb roasts for 10 to anyone who wants to pledge $5,000 to the campaign, but so far there haven’t been any takers. Bishop and company will treat 10 dudes to a lamb roast on an Oregon farm about 30 minutes outside of Portland. Not too shabby, but of course for $5,000 you could also get a shitload of Wool & Prince shirts. Hell, you’d never have to do laundry again.

Former “Scrubs” star Zach Braff is ready to produce a follow-up movie to his well-received film “Garden State.” But he doesn’t want to deal with the Hollywood suits who are almost guaranteed to make any director sacrifice a good deal of creative control for the money needed to create a movie. So he’s taking a cue from Rob Thomas, who, less than two weeks ago, campaigned on Kickstarter to get his “Veronica Mars” movie funded—with huge success. Thomas’ project actually broke records on the crowdfunding site, raising more than $5.7 million in just 30 days. Now Braff is also attempting to finance his film, “Wish I Was Here,” through Kickstarter with a goal to raise $2 million in 30 days.

“I was about to sign a typical financing deal in order to get the money to make ‘Wish I Was Here,’ my follow up to ‘Garden State.’ It would have involved making a lot of sacrifices I think would have ultimately hurt the film,” Braff wrote on the Kickstarter project page. “After I saw the incredible way ‘Veronica Mars’ fans rallied around Kristen Bell and her show’s creator Rob Thomas, I couldn’t help but think (like I’m sure so many other independent filmmakers did) maybe there is a new way to finance smaller, personal films that didn’t involve signing away all your artistic control.”

And it looks like Braff will not only reach his goal, but may break some of the records just established by “Veronica Mars.” After only two days, the “Wish I Was Here” project has already raised more than $1.6 million in pledges from more than 24,000 backers—and there are 28 days to go until the project deadline. Apparently Braff has some fans out there.

“Wish I Was Here” tells the story of Aiden Bloom (played by Braff) a struggling actor, father and husband who, at age 35, has yet to understand his purpose in life. As he and his wife struffle financially, Bloom spends much of his time fantasizing about his childhood dreams of becoming a futuristic space knight. After Bloom’s elderly father can no longer foot the bill for his children’s private schooling, Bloom decides to home-school them, resulting in a comedic journey that ultimately brings Bloom a better understanding of his own life.

If the movie’s plot alone doesn’t excite backers, the awards offered to them surely will. Thus far, almost 4,000 backers have pledged $10 toward the production of “Wish I Was Here,” and will be sent Braff’s personal production diary throughout the making of the film, as well as a PDF of the screenplay just before the film’s premiere.

Another 3,200 backers (so far) have pledged $20, and they will be offered their own copy of the movie soundtrack before it’s officially released, in addition to the other prizes. Braff is offering a unique award to those who pledge $30: He will conduct a first-of-its-kind live online movie screening across the world. Backers will be able to watch from a computer or mobile device, and Braff will even participate in a Q&A afterward. Those who pledge $40 will receive all of the above, as well as a “Wish I Was Here” T-shirt, specially designed for Kickstarter backers and “soft as a kitten taint.”

For a pledge of just $100, 1,350 lucky backers will be invited to attend advance film screenings of “I Wish I Was Here” in Los Angeles, New York and Chicago or London… Sorry, these spots are all taken, as are the 1,335 $200-level advanced screenings for two.

Other various gifts including signed art prints, autographed DVDs and personalized voice messages from Braff are offered at various pledge levels. True true fans, however, can pledged $750 and receive premiere tickets for two in New York or Los Angeles, just like the 150 backers who, for $1,000, will get to attend the premier as well as the afterparty in the cities. Ten people who pledged $5,000 each will be Braff’s personal guests at the premier and afterparty in New York and LA. Another 20 backers pledged $1,500 to visit the movie’s set, and a pledge of $2,500 will allow 50 backers to be an extra in the film.  And for a $7,000 pledge, on backer will be able to name a character in the “Wish I Was Here.“

That all sounds pretty sweet, right? The project still offers three even bigger prizes to its three largest pledge levels. Braff is offering a filmmaking symposium to 50 backers who pledge $8,000 to the movie. They will be able to spend a day in New York City with him during post-production of “Wish I Was Here” for a screening of the director’s cut. After the screening, Braff will discuss the movie with them, and they will be able to help shape the final cut of the film and receive a “special thanks” credit.

Another 10 backers who pledge $9,000 will be invited to the premiere and afterparty with a plus-one, and also receive credit at the end of the film. Finally, one lucky backer (sorry the spot’s already filled) will be a cast member in the film for pledging $10,000. That’s in addition to an invite plus-one to the premiere and afterparty and all the other goodies.

“To sum it up, movie making is a crazy business, with a lot of unknown factors. We start with a script I’m really proud of,” Braff wrote. “Then, we assemble the best team possible, get insurance, and make contingency plans. It’s impossible to guarantee everything will come together exactly as planned, but in the end, we will have created a movie that hopefully all of us can be proud of. It’s a great journey, and I thank you in advance if you can help make this ride possible.”

Image via lettrs/iTunes

The advent of social media, smartphones, Twitter and even email has ushered in an age of constant communication. But in a time when we can contact friends and loved ones instantly, the quality of the content—the art of writing a letter—is becoming an antiquated skill of the past. People spend more time mastering their abilities to express ideas in 140 characters or less than to write detailed, descriptive thoughts that paint a picture for the reader.

One tech startup hopes to reverse that trend however. Lettrs recently launched a first-of-its kind mobile app that allows users to create, manage and deliver paper or digital letters from their iPhones. The new app follows lettrs Web platform released last year, and both are designed to allow users to slow down their communications and catch up on the letters they stopped writing when the world entered the digital communication era.

There’s just something special about getting a letter in the mail According to lettrs, approximately 40 billion letters are stored in boxes, drawers and basements across the United States. As opposed to email, a letter indicates the sender took extra time to choose specific words and thoughts. Lettrs allows users to customize letters with more than 20 fonts and themes or even upload a handwritten note using iPhone’s camera. Letters can then be sent digitally or—for a nominal fee—in a hand-addressed, wax-sealed envelope through the mail.

“The introduction of the lettrs mobile app is another major step toward our goal of making letter-writing relevant and easily accessible for anyone anywhere, at any time,” said CEO and co-founder Drew Bartkiewicz. “In an age when most social media missives are quick hits without a great deal of thought behind them, I feel very strongly that people are hungry for more meaningful and deliberate communication in their lives. The lettrs mobile app is all about making the process of letter-writing much more convenient, purposeful and lasting.”

If lettrs catches on, it could also give the post office some much needed business. A 2011 Bloomberg BusinessWeek report discussed factors contributing to the decline of the United States Postal Service, including email and online communication. First-class mail—from which the USPS traditionally earned the majority of its revenue—was steadily declining and fell below junk mail for the first time in 2005. In fact, between 2006 and 2010 total mail volume fell 20 percent, and the USPS didn’t earn enough revenue to cover its operating expenses for three years straight.

“With the rise of e-mail and the decline of letters, mail volume is falling at a staggering rate, and the postal service’s survival plan isn’t reassuring,” Devin Leonard says in the Bloomberg BusinessWeek report.

Could a resurgence of letter-writing—catered to the digital age—lead the post office to recovery? One expert certainly believes the app could repopularize letters.

“The lettrs mobile app effectively brings the post office with you wherever you are,” said John Callan, founder of PostalVision and a 30-year postal industry veteran. “The ability to create and mail a physical letter right from the iPhone is truly an innovation that should be embraced by the U.S. Postal Service, and by anyone who wishes to engage with others through a personal letter. I believe this application will energize an entirely new wave of the timeless art of personal letter writing.”

To kick off the launch of its new $2.99 app and get potential users excited about writing letters, lettrs is offering a special promotion now through Mother’s Day. Users can deliver as many as five free paper-post letters anywhere in the world by using the app or by entering the code “mother” when choosing the “best” option on lettrs.com. Lettrs will convert users’ messages onto scented fine linen parchment, folded in colorful hand-crafted wrap, sealed with a wax stamp and in a hand-addressed envelope. After Mother’s Day the standard cost will be between $2 and $6 for paper-post letters, while digitally-delivered letters will remain free.