Livescribe&#x27;s developers pivoted.<p>The original model was positioned as an app platform -- the OLED screen, the downloadable extras. It was a bit clumsy and annoying (and had a steep learning curve).<p>I recently bought the Livescribe+. It cut back on features but made the core functionality work a <i>lot</i> better. Charges over micro-USB (like everything else these days), can run on generic pen refils. No apps, but realtime streaming to your phone (iOS or Android) over Bluetooth. It can still do pencasts&#x2F;audio recording (but doesn&#x27;t give you a headset so you can replay audio notes on the pen itself -- it&#x27;s not a true dictation machine).<p>In other words, it does more by doing less (but doing it better).