It's a Microsoft tradition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjZQGRATlwA

I'll just leave this here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsKKQNZG3rE

I know this thread is not about apple but I don't know of any tech demo that is guaranteed to have a 100% success rate.

"My computer has never frozen!"

Beta product running beta software froze!!!!

That is no excuse. Been a Apple hater myself, but, their presentations are impeccable. I am sure that Jobs did not had any doubt of what he had in hand to present was actually working.

So is no excuse. Better wait a month or more but smash eveyone with what the device is doing software wise and not what periferals it has.

>but, their presentations are impeccable.

It happens all the time, even during apple keynotes.

I'm sure people at Microsoft didn't plan for that to freeze and they were pissed that it did but note that when apple product sees the light of the day, it's already the final product not a beta product as this was. And as far as I am reading, people seem to be impressed by it a lot.

Now you can always argue why Microsoft chose it to demo it now in its beta form but that is anybody's guess.

> note that when apple product sees the light of the day, it's already the final product not a beta product as this was

And that's the problem - Microsoft pushing a product that isn't really there yet. All sorts of really important details (battery life, touch responsiveness, price, etc) are unknown and unverifiable.

Right now, this is nothing more than a paper launch, bordering on vaporware.