Last year, our pal (and former NASA JPL engineer) Mark Rober whipped up the first digital ugly Christmas sweater. Technology being technology, they just got an upgrade.
This year’s crop of animations blend in much more seamlessly with the sweaters that house them. You just open the free Digital Dudz app, drop the phone in the sweater’s specialised pouch, and then try to feel ok about everybody staring at your chest all night. The new animations feature Santa getting stuck in a chimney, a gingerbread man with his head being slowly eaten, Santa playing peek-a-boo, and Rudolph with his glowing nose. You can actually customise Rudolph’s nose so that it scrolls through selected images from your phone. Just be careful about which images you choose if there are kids around.
The new sweaters are selling for $US60, and there are a couple t-shirts for $US25. The free app is available for iOS and Android and doesn’t require a sweater purchase, should you be feeling DIY. I actually wore one of these to a holiday party a year ago and it definitely stole the show, so I’m looking forward to getting my hands on version 2.0. [Digital Dudz]