In a year when print book sales have slipped 1% to 679 million copies through early December, according to Circana BookScan, audiobooks continue to carve out territory that once belonged exclusively to hardcovers, and in several notable cases this year, the audio versions have outright outsold their physical counterparts.

S.A. Cosby’s southern crime novel “King of Ashes” moved more copies as an audiobook than as a hardcover, according to publisher Macmillan Audio. The same is true for celebrity memoirs from Jeremy Renner, Alyson Stoner, and Brooke Shields — all narrated by the authors themselves. Karin Slaughter’s thriller “We Are All Guilty Here” and comedian Nate Bargatze’s “Big Dumb Eyes” also saw their audio editions outpace hardcover sales.

Digital audiobook revenue jumped nearly 24% in 2024 to $1.1 billion, per the Association of American Publishers, though growth has cooled to 1% through October this year, bringing in nearly $888 million. The format’s strength has professional narrators watching AI developments nervously. Emily Lawrence, who has narrated more than 600 audiobooks, said there’s “a lot of water cooler talk about people who haven’t had work in months.” Hachette Audio publisher Ana Maria Allessi said voice-cloning technology is becoming more sophisticated and could change how authors approach narration.

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Lobsters are generally notable for their large claws, which can serve as a deterrent to any predators. But there’s a whole family of spiny lobsters that lack these claws. They tend to ward off predators by forming large groups that collectively can present a lot of pointy bits towards anything attempting to eat them. In fact, studies found that the lobsters can sense the presence of other species-members using molecules emitted into the water, and use that to find peers to congregate with.

A new study, however, finds that this same signal may lure young lobsters to their doom, causing them to try to congregate with older lobsters that are too big to be eaten by nearby predators. The smaller lobsters thus fall victim to a phenomenon called an “ecological trap,” which has rarely been seen to occur without human intervention.

Lobsters vs. groupers

The study was performed in the waters off Florida, where the seafloor is dotted by what are called “solution holes.” These features are the product of lower sea levels such as those that occur during periods of expanded glaciers and ice caps. During these times, much of the area off Florida was above sea level, and water dissolved the limestone rocks unevenly. This created an irregular array of small shallow pits and crevices, many of which have been reshaped by sea life since the area was submerged again.

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Some Grubhub users have received a tempting email offer from the food delivery service: Send $1,000 in bitcoin to a specified wallet, and get 10 times that amount back. Unfortunately, this is very much a scam.

As BleepingComputer reports, these promo emails were sent from addresses on b.grubhub.com, a legitimate Grubhub subdomain, so they appear verified in recipients’ inboxes. Two examples of senders include merry-christmast@b.grubhub.com and crypto-promotion@b.grubhub.com.

Beyond that, there are some pretty clear red flags. The subject line reads “30 minutes left – We’ll 10x your Bitcoin!” to promote a sense of urgency and an offer too good to be true (but also too good to ignore). The body includes the recipient’s name and instructions on how to participate in Grubhub’s “Holiday Crypto Promotion” with a bitcoin wallet address.

While Grubhub has acknowledged the problem, they haven’t released any details as to what facilitated attackers sending emails using a company address. The company did suffer a major security breach earlier this year, resulting in the leak of some user data (including names and email addresses).

There are several varieties of the crypto reward scam

The Grubhub email promotion is a pretty typical example of a cryptocurrency scam. The Federal Trade Commission outlines several variants, including get-rich-quick schemes guaranteeing big returns on your investment and celebrity-promoted “giveaways” that claim to multiply any funds you send.

If you fall for crypto fraud, there’s no way to track or get your money back, and even if victims are few and far between, scammers can score big paydays. That’s why you should be especially wary of anything and everything requiring a crypto transaction, especially if the offer sounds urgent or provokes a sense of either excitement or fear. And remember that no legitimate organization—government agency, law enforcement official, utility company, or prize promoter—will ever ask for payments in cryptocurrency.

Japan’s demographic transformation is no longer a distant forecast but an accelerating reality, and the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research now estimates the country’s population will fall to roughly 100 million by 2050 — more than 20 million fewer people than today.

The share of residents aged 65 and over stood at 29.4% as of September and is expected to reach 37.1% by midcentury. The dependency ratio — children and older adults supported by every 100 working-age people — is projected to rise from 68.0 to 89.0, meaning each working-age person will effectively support one dependent.

Akita Prefecture is currently offering a preview of this future. Its population fell 1.93% year over year as of November 1, the steepest decline of any prefecture, and more than 40% of its residents are already 65 or older. By 2050, Akita’s population is projected to drop to around 560,000, roughly 60% of its current size. Japan’s total fertility rate fell for the ninth consecutive year in 2024, declining to 1.15 from 1.2. A health ministry survey found around 319,000 babies were born in the first half of 2025, more than 10,000 fewer than the same period last year — a pace that could put the full-year total at a record low.

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If exercising more is part of your New Year’s resolution and you need earbuds that won’t slip out or die mid-session, the JBL Endurance Race 2 are worth a look at their current $49.95 price. They launched at $89.95, and online price trackers confirm this is the lowest price they’ve hit so far.

JBL Endurance Race 2 ANC Sports Wireless Earbuds (Black)

$49.95
at Amazon

$89.95
Save $40.00

$49.95
at Amazon

$89.95
Save $40.00

These are unapologetically sports earbuds. The buds are large and stick out more than most, but the silicone wing design makes a real difference. You twist them into place, and they stay put through runs, weight training, and sweaty HIIT workouts.

Durability and battery life are where these earn their keep. The earbuds are rated IP68, meaning they’re dustproof and can handle heavy sweat and rain without worry. They’re not for swimming, but they’re tougher than most earbuds anywhere near this price.

The case is a different story. It’s lightweight at 1.4 ounces but bulky, and the IPX2 rating means it’s fine for gym bags, not great for wet runs. Battery life, though, is excellent. You get up to 12 hours with noise cancelling off, about 10 hours with it on, and up to 48 hours total with the case. That’s enough to get through a full week of workouts without thinking about charging. 

The trade-offs show up in sound and noise control. The sound quality is decent for workouts but lacks detail in the higher ranges, especially compared to more expensive earbuds. Active noise cancelling helps indoors, but it struggles outdoors, where footfalls and traffic still come through. Ambient mode also underperforms. It doesn’t let in enough sound for confident awareness near busy roads, and wind noise can overwhelm it. Touch controls are customizable but grouped in a way that forces compromises, and they’re unreliable with sweaty fingers or gloves. Still, for anyone sticking to a fitness resolution and wanting secure, durable earbuds with long battery life at a low price, the Endurance Race 2 makes sense, as long as top-tier sound and ANC aren’t the priority.

Meta has acquired an AI startup called Manus — known for its custom research and website-building agents — in a deal valued at more than $2 billion, according toThe Wall Street Journal. It’s reportedly one of the largest acquisitions yet involving a startup nurtured in China’s AI ecosystem. 

Manus arrived in March 2025, shortly after another Chinese AI startup, DeepSeek appeared on the scene. The company (called Butterfly Effect at the time) originally described it as “the first general AI agent” to perform complex tasks autonomously, rather than just generating ideas. It draws from several third-party models, particularly Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Sonnet and versions of Alibaba’s Qwen. 

Manus is designed to automate certain tasks, like market research, coding, sales data analysis and website cloning and creation. (However, one skeptic called it “a product devilishly optimized for influencers, which is why it exploded so much.”) The company claims that Manu is “already serving the daily needs of millions of users and businesses” and has an annualized average revenue of more than $100 million only eight months after launch. 

Manus laid off most of its Beijing employees this summer before moving its headquarters to Singapore in an effort to expand globally.The company was reportedly seeking a funding round that would have valued it at $2 billion when it was approached by Meta. “Joining Meta allows us to build on a stronger, more sustainable foundation without changing how Manus works or how decisions are made,” said Manus CEO Xiao Hong in a company news release.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/meta-buys-startup-known-for-its-ai-task-automation-agents-140045275.html?src=rss