I don't generally support keep it closed until ready but for a commercial venture I would have to say that is a must. Though what they could have done is post a request for people who would be interested(from the total community) in helping out and giving them NDAs and access to the sources so that they could have fun with that.

Frankly desktop effects, web2.0, twitter(why do I always write this twatter first), social networking and other such "innovations" don't really cut it for me. Usability improvements, stability improvements however do

Long story and we can do better but in any case be sure that NDAs are not of much use with individuals. Yes for exceptions like it wa the case of the Fremantle stars or the council members invited to Nokia World, but not for anything wider or systematic.

From a free software point of view NDAs are just a pain in all senses. From a corporate point of view NDAs make sense when an infractor can pay the losses a breach of the NDA would cause, which is something no free software developer could afford.