With all the chicanery that's been going on with ATMs of late, it looks like the machines are finally getting back at the humans. In a move that's already confusing creatures of habit, envelope-free ATMs are starting to pop up in highly-trafficked areas, and as the name implies, they require that your deposits not be stuffed into an envelope beforehand. Diebold, NCR, and, Wincor Nixdorf (among others) are beginning to roll out these newfangled machines, which cost some 20-percent more than typical ATMs and sport specialized scanners that can detect how much cash you're actually inserting as you slide your check / bills into its theoretical mouth. The biggest boon here is the drop in processing costs to banks, while customers are likely to be pleased with instant receipts and nearly-instant access to the fundage. 'Course, we're just counting down the days until yet another ATM trickster figures out how to convert a Hershey's wrapper into a $20 bill.

[Image courtesy of ABC]

400 of Wells Fargo's WebATMs in northern California (Contra Costa, Alameda and Santa Clara counties) are in the process of getting a technological makeover that will allegedly cut down on the time it takes to make a deposit, increase security and eradicate those pesky bank errors, which unlike in Monopoly, hardly ever seem to be in your favor. The Envelope-Free system, which is similar to a system currently being used by Bank of America, allows you to insert stacks of up to 30 bills and 10 checks at a time which are promptly scanned, counted, displayed and printed to a receipt. While cellphone ATM access would be nice, other improvements like same day check clearance might make free lollipops your only motivation to set foot in a real bank.

[Via CBR]