Meta Ray-Ban Show: Zuckerberg’s demo fail wasn’t probably the most draw back in tech historical past via NewsFlicks

It’s possible you’ll love Mark Zuckerberg for the whole lot he is constructed; you could detest him with a zeal for a similar reason why.

However only for a second, when the Meta CEO stands on degree in his Meta Ray-Ban Presentations and fails again and again to do the most simple imaginable activity the AI-loaded glasses had been designed to do — select up a WhatsApp name — he is not Zuckerberg the good and robust.

He is only a man, status in awkward silence in entrance of an target market of hundreds, asking them to forget about a noisy ongoing ringtone.

We’ve got observed many of those tech fails in product demos through the years, the awkward moments that remind us we are seeing human beings combat mightily within the enviornment of the demo gods. Occasionally they are candy (Apple’s Craig Federighi having to hold up on his mother whilst appearing off a brand new OS), however most commonly, they are awkward to the purpose of draw back.

Most commonly, we are observing somebody who wasn’t the best presenter first of all (what tech nerd is?) flailing when a flaw in state-of-the-art tech upends a scene they have got been working towards for so long as a prime schooler practices a play. You would be forgiven for feeling like a mother or father who needs to position the digital camera down at that time.

So sure, Zuckerberg’s demo enters the tech fail corridor of repute (and for the reason that Apple would possibly not even do are living tech demos throughout its keynotes anymore, he can a minimum of be applauded for giving it a shot). However it is nonetheless a rookie mistake in comparison to those gem stones from the historical past of tech.

1. Steve Jobs begs the target market for extra WiFi

What tech nerd used to be the best presenter? You’ll get little argument from any person in Silicon Valley: Steve Jobs, whose keynotes thrived on a way of intimacy with the target market. (I noticed that firsthand again and again, together with the mythical 2007 iPhone unveiling, which had its personal array of attention-grabbing moments).

However even the mighty Jobs may flail, or get livid. In 2010, he threw a digital camera that failed to hook up with an iMac at a stagehand. And within the iPhone 4 demo above, Jobs spends uncomfortable mins if truth be told no longer speaking to the target market, a rarity, whilst he tries to load the New York Instances on Safari.

Later within the keynote, being Jobs, he proceeds to trojan horse no longer a stagehand, however all the target market, a lot of whom are tech newshounds sporting cell hotspots. He comes with receipts: “There are 570 WiFI base stations running on this room” — prior to difficult everybody shut their laptops and close down their hotspots so the demo can paintings.

“The WiFi” remains to be a go-to excuse for tech demos that move improper; we noticed that throughout Zuckerberg’s keynote. However this Jobs keynote is one case by which we will say the WiFi used to be responsible.

2. Elon Musk smashes a Cybertruck window

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“Funnier each time you watch it.” That used to be Mashable’s assessment of the 2019 demo when Tesla CEO Elon Musk went too a ways in looking to show simply how tricky the home windows in his Cybertruck, then years clear of manufacturing, could be.

This is the way it went down. The Cybertruck’s lead dressmaker dropped steel balls on plates of Tesla glass that did not shatter. Then Musk insisted the dressmaker throw the balls on the truck. Having put a hollow in a single window, he proceeds to double down, and the Cybertruck will get two bullet-like ruin marks.

Which looking back, could also be the primary signal that the Cybertruck used to be destined to turn into a complete chrome steel bucket of fail — and it additionally turns out a suitable abstract of ways Musk has blundered his method over time since then.

3. The Microsoft Floor freezes over

The notorious Home windows “blue display of loss of life” could also be not more, however its legacy lives on in Microsoft’s best-known product fails. Maximum well known: The time Invoice Gates stood on degree subsequent to a Home windows 98 system that crashed because it attempted to daisy-chain too many USB gadgets.

However is that in reality a vintage demo fail? Under no circumstances; Gates had an out. “This will have to be why we aren’t delivery Home windows 98 but,” he quipped.

To be in reality mythical, a demo fail will have to fluster the demonstrator and mar the product’s symbol in an overly public method. And within the Microsoft annals, there is not any larger instance than Home windows president Steven Sinofsky unveiling what the corporate was hoping could be its iPad killer, the Floor pill.

Sinofsky’s downside used to be that he did not get a blue display of loss of life; his Floor merely iced over as he used to be making an attempt to “browse easily” on Web Explorer. The following few seconds unquestionably haunted his nightmares, and might hang-out yours, as Sinofsky attempted to brazen his method in the course of the freeze via turning his pill clear of the target market. Yep, that’ll paintings!

4. Google Gemini fails two times

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In the case of demo fails within the AI technology, Zuckerberg has a protracted method to move if he needs to problem Google for the crown.

The hunt large demonstrated this at Google I/O 2025, the place a are living translation demo produced what used to be till now the 12 months’s maximum notorious sensible glasses fail. However the real awkwardness of the instant used to be tempered via the truth that the demo used to be described as “very dangerous” previously, and close down the second one it stopped operating.

For true vintage draw back, you want a product failing two times on the supposedly simple activity it is requested to do, preferably with a spinning wheel second the place its tool simply hangs. That is what came about at a “Made via Google” match in 2024, the place senior director of product Dave Citron tries to blow their own horns how his Pixel can take a look at a Sabrina Chippie live performance poster and work out if there may be area in his calendar for him to get tickets.

Gemini, Google’s AI, turns out to show up its nostril on the very concept; Citron’s request vanishes, no longer as soon as however two times. Significantly, Citron in spite of everything will get it to paintings after invoking “the demo gods.”

Memo to all executives who need to steer clear of this listing: The demo gods could also be fictional deities, however calling for his or her help for sure does not harm.