Trending badgeTrendingPosted 1 hour agoSubscribe to BuzzFeed Daily NewsletterCaret Down10 Truly Interesting Facts So Unbelievable I Had To Double-Check If They Were RealTIL that Home Alone was inspired by a scene of Macaulay Culkin in another movie.by Brian GalindoBuzzFeed StaffFacebookPinterestLink 1. Siri was an app that was available on Apple's own App Store until the company decided to buy it in 2010. NurPhoto / NurPhoto via Getty Images Siri was a small startup that had developed a voice assistant app for the iPhone. At the time, like I mentioned, Siri was available on the App Store and could answer questions or perform tasks using natural language. Apple saw the potential to integrate this technology directly into its ecosystem, making the iPhone more personal and hands-free. The acquisition reportedly cost around $200 million. When Siri was introduced as a built-in feature with the iPhone 4S in 2011, it became one of the phone's main selling points. This was the beginning of a new era where talking to your devices became normal. 2. When Back to the Future first hit theaters in 1985, it didn't end with the words "To Be Continued." Universal / Via youtube.com The film was originally intended as a standalone story, but after it became a massive hit, Universal Pictures decided to move forward with sequels. By the time the film was released on VHS in 1986 (it took longer for films to get home video releases back then), the studio added the "To Be Continued" tag at the end to build excitement for Back to the Future Part II. Many fans who first saw the movie at home assumed that the message had always been there. In reality, theater audiences in 1985 never saw it.
The film's co-writer and director, Robert Zemeckis, has even said that if they had intended for there to be a sequel, they would never have put Jennifer in the car with Marty, because it would have limited what his adventures could be in the future. This is likely why they decided to add the plotline where Doc puts Jennifer asleep within five minutes of the second movie starting. 3. When instant cake mixes were first introduced, they required no fresh eggs. However, food manufacturers changed that and began requiring eggs so that housewives would feel like they were doing real baking. Picture Post / Getty Images The first cake mixes already included dried eggs, so no fresh eggs were needed. But sales were disappointing, and a psychologist and marketing consultant named Ernest Dichter found that many housewives felt the process was too effortless and didn't feel like it was "real baking." To fix this, companies like Betty Crocker changed the recipe so users had to add their own fresh eggs. That small adjustment made people feel more involved and proud of the final result. But the adjustment also had an unexpected effect; by adding fresh eggs, the cake tasted way better (and not like dried eggs), and didn't stick to the pans. This led to them being much more popular. 4. Michael Jackson gained control of all his masters because of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. (C)Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection In 1982, Michael Jackson recorded a brand-new song, "Someone in the Dark" (working with Quincy Jones on it and much of the production team that worked on Thriller), and did the narration for the E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial storybook album. The project was a tie-in to Steven Spielberg's hit movie, and Jackson's label, Epic Records, allowed him to work with MCA Records on it with two conditions: the storybook couldn't be released until after Christmas 1982, and "Someone in the Dark" could not be released as a single. However, the storybook album was released on November 15, just two weeks ahead of the release of Thriller. Additionally, "Someone in the Dark" was given as 7" vinyl promotional copies to radio stations, and Jackson appeared in ads and at events related to the E.T. album.
After that happened, Epic claimed it broke its contract. This led to a legal dispute between the two companies, and MCA was briefly sued for using Jackson's work without proper permission. The two companies eventually settled, with MCA agreeing not to promote "Someone in the Dark" and halting sales of the storybook, though that was really not possible, as a million copies of the storybook had already been shipped. The lawsuit really upset Jackson, and Walter Yetnikoff, the then-president of Epic Records, asked Jackson's lawyer, John Branca, what he could do to make the situation better. Branca told him that he could give him ownership of his masters, starting with Off the Wall and Thriller, and any album or song that would come after that. Yetnikoff agreed, and Jackson would go on to own all his masters. "Someone in the Dark" won Jackson a Grammy for Best Recording for Children in 1984. So if you ever stumble upon the iconic photo of Jackson holding the eight Grammys he won in one night, just know that one is for the E.T. book and the rest are for Thriller. The song would later find