Meta Ray-Ban Show: Zuckerberg’s demo fail wasn’t essentially the most cringe in tech historical past

Chances are you’ll love Mark Zuckerberg for the whole lot he is constructed; it’s possible you’ll detest him with a ardour for a similar purpose.

However only for a second, when the Meta CEO stands on stage in his Meta Ray-Ban Shows and fails repeatedly to do the only potential process the AI-loaded glasses have been designed to do — decide up a WhatsApp name — he is now not Zuckerberg the nice and highly effective.

He is only a man, standing in awkward silence in entrance of an viewers of 1000’s, asking them to disregard a loud ongoing ringtone.

We have seen many of those tech fails in product demos over time, the awkward moments that remind us we’re seeing human beings battle mightily within the enviornment of the demo gods. Generally they’re candy (Apple’s Craig Federighi having to hold up on his mother whereas displaying off a brand new OS), however largely, they’re awkward to the purpose of cringe.

Largely, we’re watching somebody who wasn’t the best presenter to start with (what tech nerd is?) flailing when a flaw in cutting-edge tech upends a scene they have been working towards for so long as a excessive schooler practices a play. You would be forgiven for feeling like a mum or dad who desires to place the digital camera down at that time.

So sure, Zuckerberg’s demo enters the tech fail corridor of fame (and provided that Apple will not even do dwell tech demos throughout its keynotes anymore, he can at the least be applauded for giving it a shot). But it surely’s nonetheless a rookie mistake in comparison with these gems from the historical past of tech.

1. Steve Jobs begs the viewers for extra WiFi

What tech nerd was the best presenter? You’d get little argument from anybody in Silicon Valley: Steve Jobs, whose keynotes thrived on a way of intimacy with the viewers. (I noticed that firsthand many instances, together with the legendary 2007 iPhone unveiling, which had its personal array of attention-grabbing moments).

However even the mighty Jobs might 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 minutes really not speaking to the viewers, a rarity, whereas he tries to load the New York Occasions on Safari.

Later within the keynote, being Jobs, he proceeds to bug not a stagehand, however your complete viewers, a lot of whom are tech journalists carrying cell hotspots. He comes with receipts: “There are 570 WiFI base stations working on this room” — earlier than demanding everybody shut their laptops and shut down their hotspots so the demo can work.

“The WiFi” remains to be a go-to excuse for tech demos that go flawed; we noticed that in Zuckerberg’s keynote. However this Jobs keynote is one case by which we will say the WiFi was accountable.

2. Elon Musk smashes a Cybertruck window

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“Funnier each time you watch it.” That was Mashable’s overview of the 2019 demo when Tesla CEO Elon Musk went too far in attempting to reveal simply how robust the home windows in his Cybertruck, then years away from manufacturing, can be.

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

Which looking back, will be the first signal that the Cybertruck was destined to change into an entire chrome steel bucket of fail — and it additionally appears an acceptable abstract of how Musk has blundered his means via the years since then.

3. The Microsoft Floor freezes over

The notorious Home windows “blue display screen of dying” could also be no extra, however its legacy lives on in Microsoft’s best-known product fails. Most well-known: The time Invoice Gates stood on stage subsequent to a Home windows 98 machine that crashed because it tried to daisy-chain too many USB units.

However is that basically a basic demo fail? By no means; Gates had an out. “This should be why we’re not delivery Home windows 98 but,” he quipped.

To be really legendary, a demo fail should fluster the demonstrator and mar the product’s picture in a really public means. And within the Microsoft annals, there is no higher instance than Home windows president Steven Sinofsky unveiling what the corporate hoped can be its iPad killer, the Floor pill.

Sinofsky’s downside was that he did not get a blue display screen of dying; his Floor merely froze as he was making an attempt to “browse easily” on Web Explorer. The subsequent few seconds little doubt haunted his nightmares, and should hang-out yours, as Sinofsky tried to brazen his means via the freeze by turning his pill away from the viewers. Yep, that’ll work!

4. Google Gemini fails twice

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In relation to demo fails within the AI period, Zuckerberg has an extended option to go if he desires to problem Google for the crown.

The search large demonstrated this at Google I/O 2025, the place a dwell translation demo produced what was till now the yr’s most notorious sensible glasses fail. However the true awkwardness of the second was tempered by the truth that the demo was described as “very dangerous” beforehand, and shut down the second it stopped working.

For true basic cringe, you want a product failing twice on the supposedly simple process it is requested to do, ideally with a spinning wheel second the place its software program simply hangs. That is what occurred at a “Made by Google” occasion in 2024, the place senior director of product Dave Citron tries to point out off how his Pixel can take a look at a Sabrina Carpenter live performance poster and work out if there’s house in his calendar for him to get tickets.

Gemini, Google’s AI, appears to show up its nostril on the very concept; Citron’s request vanishes, not as soon as however twice. Notably, Citron lastly will get it to work after invoking “the demo gods.”

Memo to all executives who need to keep away from this record: The demo gods could also be fictional deities, however calling for his or her help actually would not damage.