5 Shady Things You Had No Clue Your Favorite Apps Could Do

5

iTunes Content You've Already Bought Can Disappear From Your Library

Based on the hype, the greatest advantage of buying your movies, shows, music, and naughty material over the internet is that things like availability aren't an issue anymore. There's no risk of anything being sold out, there's certainly no risk of getting a weird look from the store clerk, and as long as every single device you own doesn't spontaneously combust, the content you buy is yours forever and ever.

That is, unless you're using iTunes, in which case "bought" might not be the correct word.

Apple Inc.Along with all the other ... let's call them concessions ... that you've already made to Apple without realizing it.

A few months back, Anders G. da Silva wrote to Apple after losing three movies he'd purchased through the iTunes store. The initial response? They'd been Thanos'd out of his library because "the content provider has removed these movies from the Canadian Store," which meant da Silva could no longer watch them, even though he'd paid actual, non-disappearing money for them.

But don't worry! They offered da Silva a consolation prize! Namely, two credits for renting a movie. We'd complain about how much that blows, but the person in charge of that decision was probably really busy chasing down the last remaining owners of those movies through the badlands of Canada.

When CNET looked into this baffling cyber-heist, they discovered that the movies weren't gone from da Silva's account per se. Turns out he still owned the versions in the Australian store, since he lived in Australia when he bought the movies, but not the slightly different, presumably politer versions available in Canada. All he had to do now was somehow get an Australian billing address and credit card, switch his account to an Australian one (losing any credits or subscriptions he might have), download the movies to a device like some sort of caveman, and switch back to a Canadian account. So much more convenient than buying a Blu-ray!

4

It's Surprisingly Easy For Uber Drivers To Charge You A Fake "Vomit Tax"

The gig economy is nothing without honesty. Which is unfortunate, because as we're sure you're aware, people are terrible. Case in point: "vomit fraud," that hot new fad whereby Uber drivers throw a can of soup over the back seat of their cars and charge the latest rider an extra fee for "cleaning." Per Uber's policy, this can range anywhere from $80 for spilled or vomited drinks to $150 for a "Level 4 major bodily fluid mess," i.e. a Jackson Pollock situation.

3

A Soccer App Used People's Phone Mics To Look For Pirate Broadcasts

If you're a regular visitor to your local sports bar, there are a few things that you don't openly talk about -- the weird smell coming from the men's room, the questionable hand-washing practices of the fry cook, and above all else, the legal status of their cable. But as soccer fans in Spain recently found out, keeping their local watering holes' cable secrets now requires a little less tact and a little more "leaving the phones at home."

2

Instagram Is Spurring Restaurants To Create Distinctive-Looking Food (Which Tastes Awful)

These days, it's hard to go a week without some genius chef unveiling a new cool-looking culinary wonder. We're talking about rainbow unicorn frappuccinos, cronuts, gold-plated pizzas, rolled ice cream -- all spectacles designed to satisfy not just our appetites, but also our need for likes, shares, and whatever they do on Pinterest.

It's too bad, then, that most of this stuff tastes like absolute ass.

One side effect of the push by restaurants to make their offerings the trendiest, sprinkliest, most unimaginable things imaginable is that the onus has shifted from making food that tastes good to making food that looks good ... and those two wheels don't always intersect.

Take Starbucks' rainbow unicorn frappuccino, which derived most of its distinctive look from baristas adding shitloads of high-sugar syrups and artificial colors. The end result might have been so Instagrammable that many stores ran out, but according to those weirdos who actually drank it, it was everything from "an astringent whipped cloud of sour evil" to "sour birthday cake and shame" to being so flavorsome that it "made the rest of the drink curdle like expired milk."

Michelle OshenDespite having as much sugar as ... holy shit, 17 Oreos!?

1

Smart Home Devices Are Being Exploited By Abusive Partners In Terrifying Ways

George Orwell's 1984 centers around an oppressive, violent government that uses always-on surveillance not only to keep tabs on every citizen under its control, but to also dish out unimaginable pain and torment on dissenters. Unfortunately, such a setup does exist in today's world -- not in regards to state surveillance (although we're trying our hardest to get there), but in your favorite cutesily named smart home devices.

According to a recent expose by The New York Times, there's a growing trend in domestic violence cases for abusers to use smart home devices -- such as Hive and Nest -- to make their victims' existence a living hell, even after they've been kicked out of the home. From turning off air conditioners to turning up the thermostat to playing loud music through smart speakers to ringing doorbells to permalocking the front door to, of course, using cameras to spy on your every movement, it seems that the tools designed to sate our capacity for laziness can, in the wrongest of circumstances, be used to sate our capacity for cruelty.

Christian Delbert /Adobe StockThey say there's no set look for an abuser, but this is still not what we were envisioning.