So with 70 new companies and all kinds of technology, what was the biggest buzz at DEMOfall this week? The apparent appearance of rock-star / investor Bono of U2 fame. Our own reporter Natali Del Conte was blinded by the starlight, as you can see from the last photo in her Demo photo blog.

But with a little bit of digging, I managed to confirm that the prince of rock was not in San Diego Tuesday: He was, in fact, signing books in New York, and then had dinner with friends in the big Apple.

A closer look at a more recent photo of Bono shows that there's a big disconnect between fake Demo Bono and the real guitar-playing variant.

Natali wasn't the only one fooled. Apparently most attendees were convinced that he was the real deal as well. 

What does it say about the technology there, if everyone was talking about Bono? I'll take a new satellite radio any day over a famous rock star, but I guess I'm in the minority.

-- Jim Louderback

BONO-GATE UPDATE - PCMag.com Reporter Natali Del Conti weighs in with her thoughts

I Am Not A Trained Identity Expert

Yesterday in the DEMOfall exposition in San Diego, attendees got a little surprise when U2 front man Bono casually roamed the show floor. I became aware of his presence while receiving a demo from Presto Services about their computerless picture printer. They showed me a recent picture of Bono and said that he was here roaming the floor.

“Now why,” I said to myself “would Bono be interested in the DEMO technology announcements, especially when this is Fashion Week in Milan?”

I moved on, scratching my head. A few minutes later, a representative from Presto found me and said that she had found Bono again. I followed her back to her booth, where she took a photo of me with the alleged Bono, after which he and his companions left the pavilion.

Since sending the picture to my coworkers and posting it to my DEMO photo blog, there has been much speculation about the authenticity of the so-called Bono. Was I duped by an impersonator?

The band’s Web site says that they were signing autographs in a New York City Barnes and Noble at 9 a.m. on Tuesday. So how could the front man be at DEMO in San Diego at 1 p.m. if he was to be signing autographs in New York City that same morning?

Also, PC Magazine's editor-in-chief Jim Louderback has pointed out that the rock star does not wear his hair long like my photo buddy does, and that the real Bono was having drinks with his friend in New York City last night. Puzzling.

Most of us at DEMO seem to believe that we actually saw Bono. The Stiletto 100 booth even played “Beautiful Day” repeatedly to attract him to their booth on their new portable satellite radio player.

I see three possibilities here. One, I have a picture of myself looking dorky next to a fake Bono, and most of us here at DEMO were duped. If this is the case, I must say, I have never seen such a convincing impersonator. I saw U2 from the front row of the Elevation Tour in 2002, and this guy looked quite a lot like the guy I saw back then; but it has been four years since that concert, and I am certainly no expert. I’m not even a huge U2 fan. On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d call myself a 5. I could certainly live the rest of my life not hearing “Beautiful Day” ever again and be a happy woman.

The second possibility is that Bono was not present at the U2 band signing, and Louderback’s friend is mistaken. 

The third possibility is that Bono did sign autographs in New York City Tuesday morning, then took his private jet (which he certainly must have) to San Diego to check out DEMO, and then flew back east to have drinks with Louderback’s friend.

I don’t know. My instinct is to refer back to my original thought: Why would Bono be at DEMO? I honestly don’t know, and I honestly only marginally care. At the very least, I got a fun picture to send to my mom and my coworkers. You make the call.

-- Natali Del Conte