The writing is on the electron: Writing by hand is a human endeavor that technology has not yet spelled the end of, but it is working at it. Ever since the humble typewriter changed the office, the art of penmanship has been in retreat. In recent times, a slew of gadgets have tried to turn the rivals into allies, allowing you to write your words and have them converted into digital form. Princeton, with its range of laptop accessories, is very much in the tech camp. On its new PTB-DIP1, the user simply places an ordinary sheet of paper on top of the tablet and pens away using. The device "reads" the handwriting with Myscript Note Basic software and converts it into either text files or images in the GIF or JPEG formats. The equivalent of 100 A4-size written pages can be stored in its 32 megabytes of memory. An SD card slot allows for extra storage. The USB-connectable unit weighs 650 grams and measures 250×350×12 mm. Costing ¥19,800, the device hits the market this month with details at: www.princeton.co.jp

Exciting penmanship: A writing aid that stands as a small example of conspicuous consumption is the Pen Mawashi. The teched-up pen is intended for the specialist art of twirling in your fingers. World champion pen-twirler Hideki — the "God of Pen" goes by one name — has concocted the accessory, with the pens decked out in a range of LED lights for visual impact. The pens come in six combinations of color and style (cyber, sonic, metal, science, beat and sport) and cost the princely sum of ¥924. The product's Web site includes a video to show you the correct technique. See www.megahouse.co.jp/penmawashi

Encoding the afterlife: Luddites can't even find peace in death. Yamanashi Prefecture-based gravestone maker Ishi no Koe is putting technology into the afterlife thanks to headstones containing QR ("quick response") codes. These are the Japanese-developed square matrix codes that allow information to be decoded quickly, like by scanning with a camera-equipped cell phone. With the ability to store more than 1,800 kanji and kana characters in a single QR, more information than is usually etched into stone can be stored about the departed, allowing one to be remembered at length. Progress is not always personal, but it might suit the high-tech/low-time lifestyles of the future. In the long run, the company hopes the technology will provide a new way of paying your respects to the dead. More information is available at www.ishinokoe.co.jp