I also had the same issue, I solved the problem by adding a ng-submit which sets the variable submitted to true.
<form name="form" ng-submit="submitted = true" novalidate>
<div>
<span ng-if="submitted && form.email.$error.email">invalid email address</span>
<span ng-if="submitted && form.email.$error.required">required</span>
<label>email</label>
<input type="email" name="email" ng-model="user.email" required>
</div>
<div>
<span ng-if="submitted && form.name.$error.required">required</span>
<label>name</label>
<input type="text" name="name" ng-model="user.name" required>
</div>
<button ng-click="form.$valid && save(user)">Save</button>
</form>
I like the idea of using $submitted, I think I've to upgrade Angular to 1.3 ;)