Avoid Human Contact By Watching the Ball Drop on Your iPhone This New Year’s Eve

Scintillating! (Screengrab: iTunes)

Huge crowds, heightened expectations and lackluster midnight kisses — these are just some of the reasons why New Year's Eve is widely regarded as the most disappointing holiday of the year.

This year, though, you can just stay in bed sipping Jameson-spiked cider and watch the ball drop via iPad or iPhone app. You don't even have to turn the TV on.

The app's been available each New Year's since 2010, but this year, it's "simpler to use and more interactive," the New York Daily News asserts.

Times Square New Year's Eve executive producer Jeffrey Straus says about 469,000 people in 184 countries used the app over the last four years, the newspaper reports. This year, the app will include tweets between users and "someone acting as the voice of the ball," which is... intriguing?

"The ball is a man of few words," he told the Daily News. "It really is a conversation that goes on."

Hmm, okay. Interactive tweets and a surly talking ball actually do sound better than a $150 one-hour open bar or a Ryan Seacrest-hosted bash with performances from Miley Cyrus and Macklemore.

Someone create an awards show app, and we'll finally cancel cable for good.

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(Correction: A previous version of this post incorrectly identified Jeffrey Straus as Tim Straus.)