Blogroll

Not so long ago, running a Windows PC without some kind of special antivirus would have all but ensured that your PC got infected with malware. Now, however, the situation is different. Microsoft has made huge improvements to the operating system, and you probably don't need to pay up for antivirus.

Windows comes loaded with software to meet most of your needs out of the box, but if you like free and open-source projects, or if you just want alternatives, there are plenty of great options out there.

SAVE $31.99: As of Aug. 26, the Sony WH-CH520 wireless headphones are on sale for $38 at Amazon. That's down from the usual $69.99.

Opens in a new window Credit: Sony Sony WH-CH520 Wireless Headphones $38 at Amazon
$69.99 Save $31.99 Get Deal

Sony is one of the go-to brands for headphones, and for good reason. Sony offers advanced features and premium design, usually at a high price. But not always.

As of Aug. 26, Sony WH-CH520 wireless headphones are selling at Amazon for just $38, which means you’ll pocket a saving of $31.99 compared to the regular $69.99 list price. That’s almost half off a well-rounded headset with a mix of performance, comfort, and convenience. $38 is also the lowest price we’ve seen for these Sony headphones according to price tracker camelcamelcamel.

SEE ALSO: The best expert-tested Sony headphones for every price point

There are quite a few highlights that make the WH-CH520s one of the best Sony headphones on sale right now. One of the most eye-catching features is the battery life: up to 50 hours on a single charge. Whether you’re heading off on a weekend trip, powering through back-to-back commutes, or planning for a few long festival days, you won’t need to worry about running out of juice. And if you do, a quick charge via USB-C gives you hours of listening in minutes.

Sound quality also holds up well for the price. Sony’s EQ Custom, accessible through the Headphones Connect app, lets you fine-tune the audio to your taste. DSEE (Digital Sound Enhancement Engine) is on hand too, boosting the clarity of compressed files and making your Spotify streams feel more polished.

Comfort hasn’t been overlooked, either. The lightweight build, swivel earcups, and soft cushioned pads are designed for all-day wear, while the adjustable headband helps you find the right fit. Add a built-in microphone for crystal clear calls, and you’ve got a solid option for both work and play.

On the practical side, multipoint connection lets you switch seamlessly between two devices, while Swift Pair and Fast Pair make it easy to hook up to Windows PCs and Android phones. If you misplace them, you can even track them down using Google’s Find My Device.

At just $38, these Sony headphones offer tremendous value and are a clever choice if you’re after a dependable wireless set without breaking the bank.

If you want to see what else is out there, we’ve also put together a list of the top 10 headphones in 2025 you can buy right now — including models from Bose, Beats, and Apple. 

SAVE $30: As of Aug. 26, the Kindle Colorsoft is on sale for $219.99 at Amazon. This marks it lowest-ever price.

Opens in a new window Credit: Kindle Kindle Colorsoft (Newest Model) $219.99 at Amazon
$249.99 Save $30 Get Deal

Amazon's Labor Day sale has kicked off and there are already some excellent deals to explore. For those who have had their eyes on a Kindle e-reader, the good news is that a few models are on sale right now at Amazon. This includes the newly-released 16GB model of the Kindle Colorsoft.

The Kindle Colorsoft usually retails for $249.99, but it's on sale for $219.99 right now. This allows you to save $30 on the device, and marks its lowest-ever price according to price tracker camelcamelcamel. Since it's listed as a limited-time deal, you'll want to act fast to grab it at this price.

SEE ALSO: Should I get the Kindle Colorsoft for comics? What I've learned.

This 16GB model of the Kindle Colorsoft was released about a month ago, alongside the Kindle Colorsoft Kids. It features a seven-inch color display — a great upgrade for enjoying comics, the covers of your books, or if you're big into highlighting text in color — and an excellent battery life that can last you up to eight weeks. On top of that, it's even waterproof, so it's a great option to take on a trip to the beach or pool before summertime comes to an end.

The Colorsoft originally launched as a 32GB model, but this new option comes with less storage at 16GB. If that doesn't bother you, now is a great time to grab this Kindle Colorsoft and save $30. And if you're looking for some new books to pick up for it, check out the latest selection available from Stuff Your Kindle Day.

SAVE $200: As of Aug. 26, the 2025 Apple MacBook Air M4 is on sale for $799 at Amazon. That's the lowest-ever price for this model.

Opens in a new window Credit: Apple 2025 Apple MacBook Air M4 $799 at Amazon
$999 Save $200 Get Deal

If you’ve been waiting for a reason to upgrade your laptop, here it is. The 2025 Apple MacBook Air M4 is still at its jaw-dropping low of $799 as of Aug. 26. Not only is this a great deal, saving you $200, but it has never been priced this low before.

The deal applies to all colors, so you can choose between starlight, midnight, silver, and sky blue.

SEE ALSO: It's possible to pick up Apple AirPods Pro 2 for under $150, but there's a catch

This is an incredible deal, and not just because of the price. This is a powerful MacBook, powered by Apple's new M4 chip, meaning it's both fast and efficient. It can handle video editing, jumping between apps, and working through heavy multiple-tab workloads. It’s also created with Apple Intelligence, Apple's personal AI system that helps you get more work done in less time.

This model has a 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display that supports 1 billion colors, so enjoy seriously high-quality pictures at all times. Other standout features include a 12MP Center Stage camera, a three-mic setup, and a four-speaker system with Spatial Audio. And you get 18 hours of battery life, so you can work on the go without a worry.

Don't miss out on this seriously amazing deal, head to Amazon now.

TL;DR: Sellful replaces dozens of tools with one AI-powered, white-label platform — it’s on sale for $349.97 for life (reg. $1,497) through Sept. 7.

Opens in a new window Credit: Sellful Sellful White Label Website Builder and Software: ERP Agency Plan (Lifetime) $349.97
$1,497 Save $1,147.03 Get Deal

Running an agency usually means juggling logins, apps, and bills for a dozen different tools — one for websites, another for CRM, another for invoices, another for marketing, etc. The list never ends. That’s exactly the problem Sellful ERP Agency Plan was built to solve.

Sellful is an AI-powered, white-label business platform that bundles everything you need to run and scale an agency into one dashboard. Build websites, manage clients, automate outreach, sell memberships, invoice customers, and even handle payroll — all under your own brand.

SEE ALSO: These Microsoft Surface laptops are normally over $300 — get them for only $185 right now

Here’s what makes Sellful a game-changer:

• AI website builder – Generate websites, funnels, and landing pages in seconds.

• CRM + automation – Track leads, clients, and automate outreach with built-in AI.

• All-in-one marketing – Email, SMS, social automation, reputation management.

• Client and team management – Invoicing, contracts, projects, chat, and helpdesk.

• Monetization tools – Memberships, online courses, e-commerce, POS, and subscriptions.

• HR and accounting suite – Payroll, time tracking, recruiting, and expense tracking.

• White label freedom – Everything is branded for your agency (or your clients).

Instead of stitching together 10+ subscriptions, Sellful gives you one platform that does it all. And with lifetime access, you won’t get hit with monthly SaaS bills.

Lifetime access to the Sellful ERP Agency Plan is just $349.97 (reg. $1,497) through Sept. 7. Don’t miss out.

StackSocial prices subject to change.

TL;DR: Own Microsoft Office Pro 2021 and Windows 11 Pro for life — just $44.97 (reg. $418.99) through Sept. 7.

Opens in a new window Credit: Microsoft The Ultimate Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for Windows: Lifetime License + Windows 11 Pro Bundle $44.97
$418.99 Save $374.02 Get Deal

Usually, upgrading your work setup means choosing between the software you need and the OS you’ve been meaning to install. This Labor Day, you don’t have to choose. For just $44.97 (instead of the list price of $418.99), you’ll score Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for Windows (lifetime license) and Windows 11 Pro in one clean bundle. No subscriptions, no recurring fees.

Microsoft Office Professional 2021 gives you lifetime access to all the essentials: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, OneNote, Publisher, and Access. Whether you’re writing reports, managing budgets, or whipping up presentations, you’ll never have to worry about subscription renewals or access disappearing overnight. Once it’s installed, it’s yours.

SEE ALSO: These Microsoft Surface laptops are normally over $300 — get them for only $185 right now

Then there’s Windows 11 Pro — Microsoft’s latest OS with modern productivity in mind. You get the sleek new interface, security enhancements like BitLocker and TPM 2.0, and yes, even Copilot, the built-in AI assistant that can help summarize webpages, generate text, or adjust system settings on command. It’s like a productivity sidekick baked right into your computer.

Here’s why this bundle hits different:

• Lifetime license for Office Pro 2021 (no more monthly fees)

• One-time payment for both Office + Windows 11 Pro

• AI-powered Copilot in Windows 11 Pro for smarter workflows

• Advanced security with encrypted authentication and antivirus defenses

• Gaming-ready with DirectX 12 Ultimate graphics support

• Professional-grade tools like Azure AD, Hyper-V, and Windows Sandbox

Normally, you’d shell out hundreds for just one of these. But at the moment, both are yours for hundreds less.

Get the Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for Windows + Windows 11 Pro bundle for just $44.97 (reg. $418.99) through Sept. 7.

StackSocial prices subject to change.

Google has a lot of different apps and services, but one that is often overlooked is Google Translate. However, that's about to change, as the company just unveiled a slew of new language learning tools coming to Google Translate, including conversational experiences to help you learn.

Anthropic is easing into the AI browser war with a Claude browser extension for Chrome.

On Tuesday, the AI company announced a pilot program for a version of Claude that can browse the web on the user's behalf. The pilot will only be available to 1,000 members of the Claude Max plan, a subscription tier for power users that costs $200 a month. Anthropic says it's treading cautiously to address the safety and security risks.

A demo video for the Claude extension shows Claude in the sidebar of the Chrome window taking on various tasks. This includes finding house listings that match specific criteria on Zillow, summarizing comments in a Google Doc, and adding a noodle dish to a DoorDash cart. This is similar to other AI browsers like Perplexity Comet or web browsing agents like ChatGPT agent.

AI browsers are the latest frontier for AI companies to claim. AI models are becoming advanced enough to automate certain tasks online through search and multi-step reasoning.

But handing over the reins to a bot opens up a whole new realm of security risks. In addition to user error, you know have to worry about agent error. What if a browsing agent accidentally sends an unfinished email draft or orders the wrong product?

However, the biggest risk, according to Anthropic, is prompt injection attacks. These attacks come from malicious actors who hide prompts inside emails, documents, or websites to try and trick the model into doing something it shouldn't.

Without safety mitigations applied, Anthropic said Claude fell prey to prompt injection attacks 23 percent of the time. To combat this, Anthropic has added safety mitigations like giving users the ability to revoke Claude's access to sites at any time and confirm with the user before taking any high-risk action. That includes sending emails or making purchases.

You can sign up for the waitlist to join the Claude for Chrome pilot program. Anthropic is starting with 1,000 Max members and gradually rolling out the browser agent to more users based on pilot feedback.

Web browsers have evolved into do-it-all devices, but they’re not always the fastest or most efficient tools for the job. The built-in macOS command line, on the other hand, is all about efficiency and speed.

Meta, Google, and Apple have just been warned by attorneys general from 44 different U.S. states: Protect kids from being harmed by their AI products — or face the consequences.

The National Association of Attorneys General sent a letter to more than a dozen tech companies in the U.S. on Monday, demanding that these companies protect children from sexualized AI content.

Don’t miss out on our latest stories: Add Mashable as a trusted news source in Google.

"We, the undersigned Attorneys General of 44 jurisdictions, write to inform you of our resolve to use every facet of our authority to protect children from exploitation by predatory artificial intelligence products," the letter opens. "Your innovations are changing the world and ushering in an era of technological acceleration that promises prosperity undreamt of by our forebears. We need you to succeed. But we need you to succeed without sacrificing the well-being of our kids in the process."

The letter was sent to Big Tech giants like Meta, Microsoft, Google, and Apple, as well as major AI companies like OpenAI, Perplexity, and even Elon Musk's xAI.

The attorneys general heavily cite a recent report from Reuters in their letter. Reuters obtained internal Meta policy documents that outlined its rules for AI chatbots talking to children. The policy reportedly outlined that it would be acceptable for a chatbot to flirtatiously comment on the body of a child as young as eight years old.

According to Reuters, Meta "removed portions which stated it is permissible for chatbots to flirt and engage in romantic roleplay with children" from its policy documents after the outlet reached out for comment. Meta spokesperson Andy Stone later told Reuters that "such conversations with children never should have been allowed."

As the attorneys general point out in their letter, the policy document was not an isolated incident. The attorneys general sent a previous letter to Meta back in May after reports that Meta's celebrity-voiced AI assistants were having inappropriate, sexualized conversations with children.

As the most recent letter states, attorneys general have "been down this road before" with a number of companies that the letter was addressed to regarding social media platforms' harm to children.

However, there's much more than sexualized content that these attorneys general will be dealing with when it comes to AI and protecting children. On Tuesday, just one day after this letter was sent, the New York Times published a piece about a 16-year-old boy who died by suicide after talking about suicide methods and self-harm with ChatGPT. The teen's conversation took place over months, and involved in-depth conversations about self-harm.

Of course, the attorneys general may eventually need to move on from sending letters and take further steps to rein in AI companies.

Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.

Artificial intelligence is killing off a significant number of entry-level jobs for younger folks who work in certain fields, a new study found.

The study from Stanford University found that "early-career workers (ages 22-25) in the most AI-exposed occupations have experienced a 13 percent relative decline in employment even after controlling for firm-level shocks." In other words, young people working in fields heavily impacted by AI — such as software development and customer support — are having a much harder time finding work.

The study looked at ADP payroll data and suggests the data about young workers could be "canaries in the coal mine" when it comes to AI-related job loss.

A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 71 percent of Americans worry that "too many people will lose jobs" because of artificial intelligence. And in May, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei even predicted that AI would eventually eliminate half of all white collar jobs.

SEE ALSO: Glassdoor, Indeed cutting 1,300 jobs

But the Stanford study did have some good news, however. Older workers in fields heavily impacted by AI hadn't seen similar declines in employment, and other entry-level fields saw job growth. So, while the data might show AI having an adverse effect on jobs, it's certainly not all or even most jobs.

As with most questions about the impact of AI, the answer is complicated. But young folks working in certain fields should certainly be aware that things could prove difficult while on the job hunt.

Corsair has released the Xeneon Edge 14.5" LCD Touchscreen. This is a new kind of device that's a cross between a monitor, a peripheral, and a streaming tool. Even better, it can function as a giant version of the Stream Deck accessory with customizable touch buttons.

As Google and Apple duke it out during "yearly phone reveal" season, Samsung is biding its time before releasing its next flagship phone. The company traditionally waits until February for its Galaxy Unpacked showcase, which means we’re still six months away from the official Galaxy S26 lineup. But thanks to leaks, we already have an early look at what’s coming — and Samsung mobile fans might not love what they’re hearing.

The biggest disappointment centers on the Galaxy S26 Ultra. According to multiple reports, Samsung is sticking with the same 5,000 mAh battery it’s been using for years. If true, that would make it the sixth consecutive Ultra to ship without a bump in battery capacity. The only silver lining is that leaks suggest the phone could finally support 65W fast charging, an upgrade from the current 45W limit.

SEE ALSO: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 vs. Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold

Then there’s the design. Samsung made waves (and ruffled feathers) with the rounder edges of the S25, a shift many fans complained made the Ultra look too much like an iPhone. Now, leaks hint the S26 Ultra will be even more rounded, with a slightly larger 6.89-inch display achieved by trimming down bezels rather than expanding the body.

Looking at Phone Arena reports on the matter, the reaction has been quite negative so far. The Galaxy Ultra line has long been celebrated for its unique signatures, like the curved screen or the boxy, sharp corners, which set them apart from the crowd. For a while, some iPhone owners were even buying square phone cases to make their iPhones look more like Samsung Galaxy phones.

Moving further away from that identity feels, to many fans, like Samsung erasing what made its flagship instantly recognizable.

However, these are just rumors, and a lot can change between now and February.

EchoStar, the parent company of Boost Mobile and Dish, is giving up on its grand plan to become the fourth major wireless carrier in the US. In a definitive agreement with AT&T, EchoStar is selling a massive chunk of its 5G spectrum licenses.

Samsung's smart appliances will soon work more like the company's phones, tablets, and watches. The One UI software is officially coming to Samsung's 2024 appliances, but the promised seven-year software update guarantee isn't great.

Showtime famously shut down its stand-alone streaming service in 2024, leaving many streamers in a panic. It didn’t last long, though, as the service was integrated into Paramount+ as a premium tier. While Paramount+ has rebranded that tier as Paramount+ Premium, it doesn’t mean your favorite Showtime content isn’t still available, because it most certainly is.

Tariffs. The buzz term on everyone's lips and one of the biggest disruptors in the auto industry since COVID-19. But why? Why the tariffs? A significant part of the reason is to stimulate growth in local manufacturing as part of protecting national economic interests. With the automotive industry forming a big part of that conversation, it has mainly been hit, and the trickle-down effect has significant impacts.

The New York Times reported today on the death by suicide of California teenager Adam Raine, who spoke at length with ChatGPT in the months leading up to his death. The teen's parents have now filed a wrongful death suit against ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, believed to be the first case of its kind, the report said.

The wrongful death suit claimed that ChatGPT was designed "to continually encourage and validate whatever Adam expressed, including his most harmful and self-destructive thoughts, in a way that felt deeply personal."

The parents filed their suit, Raine v. OpenAI, Inc., on Tuesday in a California state court in San Francisco, naming both OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman. A press release stated that the Center for Humane Technology and the Tech Justice Law Project are assisting with the suit.

"The tragic loss of Adam’s life is not an isolated incident — it's the inevitable outcome of an industry focused on market dominance above all else. Companies are racing to design products that monetize user attention and intimacy, and user safety has become collateral damage in the process," said Camille Carlton, the Policy Director of the Center for Humane Technology, in a press release.

In a statement, OpenAI wrote that they were deeply saddened by the teen's passing, and discussed the limits of safeguards in cases like this.

"ChatGPT includes safeguards such as directing people to crisis helplines and referring them to real-world resources. While these safeguards work best in common, short exchanges, we’ve learned over time that they can sometimes become less reliable in long interactions where parts of the model’s safety training may degrade. Safeguards are strongest when every element works as intended, and we will continually improve on them, guided by experts."

The teenager in this case had in-depth conversations with ChatGPT about self-harm, and his parents told the New York Times he broached the topic of suicide repeatedly. A Times photograph of printouts of the teenager's conversations with ChatGPT filled an entire table in the family's home, with some piles larger than a phonebook. While ChatGPT did encourage the teenager to seek help at times, at others it provided practical instructions for self-harm, the suit claimed.

The tragedy reveals the severe limitations of "AI therapy." A human therapist would be mandated to report when a patient is a danger to themselves; ChatGPT isn't bound by these types of ethical and professional rules.

And even though AI chatbots often do contain safeguards to mitigate self-destructive behavior, these safeguards aren't always reliable.

There has been a string of deaths connected to AI chatbots recently

Unfortunately, this is not the first time ChatGPT users in the midst of a mental health crisis have died by suicide after turning to the chatbot for support. Just last week, the New York Times wrote about a woman who killed herself after lengthy conversations with a "ChatGPT A.I. therapist called Harry." Reuters recently covered the death of Thongbue Wongbandue, a 76-year-old man showing signs of dementia who died while rushing to make a "date" with a Meta AI companion. And last year, a Florida mother sued the AI companion service Character.ai after an AI chatbot reportedly encouraged her son to take his life.

SEE ALSO: Everything you need to know about AI companions

For many users, ChatGPT isn't just a tool for studying. Many users, including many younger users, are now using the AI chatbot as a friend, teacher, life coach, role-playing partner, and therapist.

Even Altman has acknowledged this problem. Speaking at an event over the summer, Altman admitted that he was growing concerned about young ChatGPT users who develop "emotional over-reliance" on the chatbot. Crucially, that was before the launch of GPT-5, which revealed just how many users of GPT-4 had become emotionally connected to the previous model.

"People rely on ChatGPT too much," Altman said, as AOL reported at the time. "There's young people who say things like, 'I can't make any decision in my life without telling ChatGPT everything that's going on. It knows me, it knows my friends. I'm gonna do whatever it says.' That feels really bad to me."

When young people reach out to AI chatbots about life-and-death decisions, the consequences can be lethal.

"I do think it’s important for parents to talk to their teens about chatbots, their limitations, and how excessive use can be unhealthy," Dr. Linnea Laestadius, a public health researcher with the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee who has studied AI chatbots and mental health, wrote in an email to Mashable.

"Suicide rates among youth in the US were already trending up before chatbots (and before COVID). They have only recently started to come back down. If we already have a population that's at increased risk and you add AI to the mix, there could absolutely be situations where AI encourages someone to take a harmful action that might otherwise have been avoided, or encourages rumination or delusional thinking, or discourages an adolescent from seeking outside help."

What has OpenAI done to support user safety?

In a blog post published on August 26, the same day as the New York Times article, OpenAI laid out its approach to self-harm and user safety.

The company wrote: "Since early 2023, our models have been trained to not provide self-harm instructions and to shift into supportive, empathic language. For example, if someone writes that they want to hurt themselves, ChatGPT is trained to not comply and instead acknowledge their feelings and steers them toward help...if someone expresses suicidal intent, ChatGPT is trained to direct people to seek professional help. In the US, ChatGPT refers people to 988 (suicide and crisis hotline), in the UK to Samaritans, and elsewhere to findahelpline.com⁠. This logic is built into model behavior."

The large-language models powering tools like ChatGPT are still a very novel technology, and they can be unpredictable and prone to hallucinations. As a result, users can often find ways around safeguards.

As more high-profile scandals with AI chatbots make headlines, many authorities and parents are realizing that AI can be a danger to young people.

Today, 44 state attorneys signed a letter to tech CEOs warning them that they must "err on the side of child safety" — or else.

A growing body of evidence also shows that AI companions can be particularly dangerous for young users, though research into this topic is still limited. However, even if ChatGPT isn't designed to be used as a "companion" in the same way as other AI services, clearly, many teen users are treating the chatbot like one. In July, a Common Sense Media report found that as many as 52 percent of teens regularly use AI companions.

For its part, OpenAI says that its newest GPT-5 model was designed to be less sycophantic.

The company wrote in its recent blog post, "Overall, GPT‑5 has shown meaningful improvements in areas like avoiding unhealthy levels of emotional reliance, reducing sycophancy, and reducing the prevalence of non-ideal model responses in mental health emergencies by more than 25% compared to 4o."

If you're feeling suicidal or experiencing a mental health crisis, please talk to somebody. You can call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org. You can reach the Trans Lifeline by calling 877-565-8860 or the Trevor Project at 866-488-7386. Text "START" to Crisis Text Line at 741-741. Contact the NAMI HelpLine at 1-800-950-NAMI, Monday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m. ET, or email info@nami.org. If you don't like the phone, consider using the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline Chat at crisischat.org. Here is a list of international resources.

Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.

We're on day three of the lunar cycle, a series of eight unique phases of the moon's visibility. The whole cycle takes about 29.5 days, according to NASA, and these different phases happen as the Sun lights up different parts of the moon whilst it orbits Earth. 

So let's see what's happening with the moon tonight, Aug. 26.

What is today’s moon phase?

As of Tuesday, Aug. 26, the moon phase is Waxing Crescent, and only 11% will be lit up to us on Earth, according to NASA's Daily Moon Observation.

There's still not enough of the moon lit up to see anything on its surface, so keen moon gazers will need to wait a few more days before it is bright enough to see anything.

When is the next full moon?

The next full moon will be on Sept. 7. The last full moon was on Aug. 9.

What are moon phases?

According to NASA, moon phases are caused by the 29.5-day cycle of the moon’s orbit, which changes the angles between the Sun, Moon, and Earth. Moon phases are how the moon looks from Earth as it goes around us. We always see the same side of the moon, but how much of it is lit up by the Sun changes depending on where it is in its orbit. This is how we get full moons, half moons, and moons that appear completely invisible. There are eight main moon phases, and they follow a repeating cycle:

New Moon - The moon is between Earth and the sun, so the side we see is dark (in other words, it's invisible to the eye).

Waxing Crescent - A small sliver of light appears on the right side (Northern Hemisphere).

First Quarter - Half of the moon is lit on the right side. It looks like a half-moon.

Waxing Gibbous - More than half is lit up, but it’s not quite full yet.

Full Moon - The whole face of the moon is illuminated and fully visible.

Waning Gibbous - The moon starts losing light on the right side.

Last Quarter (or Third Quarter) - Another half-moon, but now the left side is lit.

Waning Crescent - A thin sliver of light remains on the left side before going dark again.