• USA Today/AP, Thursday, April 17, 2008 10:30 AM

In time for Mother's Day, Hallmark is releasing a line of recordable cards that allow the sender to save a 10-second message on a computer chip embedded in the card, followed by a 15-second snippet of music. The cards will sell for $5.99 each.

As part of the release, Hallmark is focusing on mothers deployed overseas with the military. It plans to travel to five U.S. military bases to allow the children of military personnel to record greeting cards, which Hallmark will then mail overseas for Mother's Day and Father's Day.

Once the senders are satisfied with the message they've recorded, they tear out a paper insert to lock it into the sound chip's memory. As long as the insert remains in the card, the message will be erased when the card closes and can be re-recorded. The feature prevents card store shoppers from leaving "inappropriate" messages on the cards before they're purchased.

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