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Years ago, when our PR agency worked for Casio, we sent out a bunch of new digital watches to well known personalities, hoping to grab a photo op of one of them wearing the timepieces. Tom Hanks was one of the recipients. Several weeks after the watches were sent out, I received a personal thank you note from the super star.

Two things surprised me at the time. One was that the actor actually took the time to compose the note. The second, was that Tom Hanks had his own personalized stationery engraved with “THanks.” Get it? Tom Hanks used the T of his first name combined with his last name to spell out “thanks.”

I thought it was so clever that I stared at that note for years. It wasn’t until this morning that I realized there was something else that was very special about the document. It was written on a manual typewriter. I never thought much about it until I learned today that Mr. Hanks collects manuel typewriters. To celebrate his passion, he recently introduced an iPad app that functions as a typewriter.

Hanks wants to give iPad writers the feeling and sound of using a manual typewriter. He worked with hitscents.com to create the Hanx Writer app. Hanks claims the app “provides the ease and speed of an iPad with the sound and pace of a manual typewriter.”

Hanks is providing a free typewriter app for all, the Hanx Prime Select. USA Today did a comprehensive description of the upgrades.