With a promised launch in Boston later this year, the company claimed its right to be at the 16-year-old gathering of high-tech innovators by running the ice cream maker on Linux. But the real fun of the device was in its ability to make a fully customizable ice cream in 90 different combinations, from full fat to low fat, with myriad flavors and add-ins, in about 90 seconds.

The system actually makes the ice from aeration to mixing once the customer orders.

The business model, according to Bruce Ginsberg, president of MooBella, is to sell vending machines to retail outlets like Starbucks.

"Starbucks can become the largest ice cream retailer overnight," said Ginsberg. For now, however, the company is looking for funding to build all of those ice cream vending machines.

Returning to what are more typical Demo topics, Grass Roots Software presented Freepath, a Microsoft PowerPoint-like application that allows users to import files that PowerPoint cannot.