Hello, Tuesday! Let's begin with a fun fact. Do you know what temperature is too hot for an iPhone to work well? Is it … 77 degrees, 95 degrees, 113 degrees or 131 degrees Fahrenheit? You'll find the answer at the end, along with why I got another slap on the wrist with a ruler from my math teacher, Sr. Margaret. 

 🎨 Do your part to keep these free newsletters coming to your inbox and let us pay the bills. Click the link to check out today’s sponsor, Masterworks. It’s a great way to do something you probably never thought was possible. Now, on with the tech news! — Kim

This is important intel for you to know. The doctor will see you now … anywhere, thanks to telehealth. But patients have found these visits sneaking a hand into their wallets. Reports show a growing number of hospitals and doctors nationwide are charging patients just to message their doctors. That’s leading to surprise fees as high as $50 for an email!

I know. It feels like we’re getting nickeled and dimed for everything from concert tickets to hidden cable fees. But charging patients to ask a question seems pretty extreme. 

Doctors have their reasons. Patients are furious. Let’s break it all down.

An exercise in patients

During COVID, telehealth portals couldn't handle video visits like simple phone calls unless they opened call centers. Instead, they used email to screen patients and chose only a few for online video chats with a doctor. That’s still a lot of emails.

In 2019, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services added new billing codes that allowed healthcare businesses to charge for written messages. Slowly but surely, message fees have gone live.

What’s up, Doc?

Some hospitals and offices use proprietary software to track who and how often a patient emails their doctor, while others are charging via common patient portals like MyChart. 

Hospitals in Ohio (including the Cleveland Clinic), Illinois, Maryland (including Johns Hopkins), Texas, Pennsylvania, Oregon and California all have taken the pricey plunge. And many more will be moving to these pay-to-email fees as standard practice.

Tips to dodge patient messaging fees

Some chats are more likely to add dollar signs to your bill than others. Here are ways around the fees:

• If you need a doctor's direct advice, try to wait for a covered visit to bring it up. Anything that takes a doctor more than five minutes counts. That can include prescription changes, unexpected changes in ongoing symptoms or conditions, and regular check-ups for long-term conditions.
• If scheduling appointments, getting a new refill on a prescription, asking about a recent medical visit or following instructions from your doctor to send an update, you can probably message without worry. These messages don't usually get billed.
• When possible, send direct emails through your email client, like Gmail or Outlook. These are less likely to be charged than a patient portal like MyChart, although it's more challenging to contact a doctor's office directly.

📞 When in doubt, call your healthcare provider and ask about their email billing policies. If you’re kind, healthcare workers might help you determine the most affordable way to contact your doctor.

😂 Speaking of doctors … Doctor: “I think the patient is dying. What’s his blood type?” Nurse: “B positive.” Doctor: “OK, I think the patient is going to make it.”

This is great info to pass along. Go ahead — use those share buttons below to do that now while you’re thinking of it.

It’s one of the oldest markets in the world, but until recently, the average person would never dream of investing in it. Until a Harvard data scientist and his team cracked the code with a system to identify “excess alpha.”

The best part? Everyday people are already benefiting.

The company that makes it all possible is called Masterworks, whose unique investment platform enables savvy investors to invest in blue-chip art for a fraction of the cost. Their proprietary database of art market returns provides an unrivaled quantitative edge in analyzing investment opportunities.

So far, it's been right on the money. Every one of their 13 exits has been profitable, with recent exits delivering +17.8%, +21.5%, and +35.0% net annualized returns.

See important disclosures at masterworks.com/cd.

🛍️ Prime Day is here: You won't want to miss out on the best deals this July 11 and 12. I've curated a list of the top bargains, and they're coming straight to your inbox today! 📧 Make sure to keep an eye out for that email and snag early Prime Day deals before they're gone! 

Camelcamelcamel: Want to know if that Amazon Prime Day deal is just a regular price in disguise? Use The Camelizer browser extension to check out the price history of any Amazon product. It shows a detailed graph of price fluctuations over time.

The future is now: OpenAI is releasing access to Code Interpreter, one of its in-house plugins, to those who pay $20 per month for ChatGPT. With the upgrade, you can ask ChatGPT to run code, analyze data, create charts, edit files and do complex math.

🍔 Spam-a-lot: Had enough of those in-your-face website notifications? Microsoft Edge 113 will introduce a spam notification filter. Instead of bold pop-ups, the first alert from an unfamiliar site will make a low-key appearance in your address bar. Hello, Apple, are you seeing this?

Forget filters: Google Photos has 12 new effects to try out — if you have a Google Pixel smartphone or pay for Google One. Aside from the usual photo-editing tools, you’ll now see an Effects tab. Options include light leak, fish eye, retro film and poster. See them here.

👟 Ready to sweat: Big Tech is courting a new target demo for VR — women. VR headset makers are shifting gears from gaming to fitness apps. Apple’s merging its Fitness+ with its Vision Pro headset. Yup, just take my money.

Listen up: Song recognition app Shazam can now tell you what song is playing on YouTube, Instagram, Threads, TikTok and more. From any app, swipe down from the top right of your screen and hit the Shazam button. (It looks like a sideways “S.”)

📺 Movie sound magic: The movie "Top Gun: Maverick" unveiled clever techniques to make an imaginary aircraft, the Dark Star, sound convincingly lifelike. With a masterful blend of familiar sounds, precise cuts and a touch of auditory wizardry, the sounds breathe life into exhilarating flights. Watch this video to see how it was done.

Sound like a tech pro, even if you're not one. Try my award-winning, daily podcast. Search for my last name with "K" wherever you get your podcasts and "Go Komando!"

Listen to my podcast, Kim Komando Today, here.

Use Chrome, Edge, Brave, Sidekick, Opera or Firefox to browse the web? What about Discord, Steam, a password manager or a crypto wallet? 

You're a prime target for the Meduza Stealer, a type of malware that poses a serious personal and digital security risk. Its primary purpose is to steal valuable data from your computer — login credentials, credit card details and cryptocurrency wallet data.

Let’s take a deeper look at how the malicious software works. Consider this your cybersecurity lesson of the day!

Hunt and gather

Once Meduza Stealer infiltrates a computer, it gets to work gathering information. Step 1: GPS check. Meduza doesn’t steal data from computers in Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Georgia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova or Tajikistan.

Not in one of those countries? You’re a target. Step 2: It collects details about your computer system, which it then uses to sniff out your valuable data. Passwords, card details and other credentials are fair game. Step 3: Meduza delivers all that info back to the attacker.

This malware can steal info from 19 password manager apps, 76 crypto wallets and 95 web browsers, as well as apps Discord and Steam.

Hiding in plain sight

Meduza Stealer is notoriously hard to spot. A process called obfuscation hides its activities, essentially masking actions so they appear harmless or invisible to your computer's security software. It also uses encryption to secure your stolen data, protecting it during transmission back to the attacker. Uh, thanks?

It’s also pretty darn good at fooling standard antivirus software. The stealer adapts once it's spotted so it can fly under the radar. Free antivirus solutions aren’t going to cut it.

How to protect yourself

Yeah, it's tricky, but vigilance and some basic security measures go a long way.

• Regular system updates and patches can fix security vulnerabilities that could be exploited by the malware. 
• Use complex, unique passwords for all your accounts. 
• Keep your antivirus software updated so you’re always running the latest version. My pick is TotalAV.*

😂 What does Medusa have in her Tinder dating profile? “I'm drop-dead gorgeous.”

Headed into the country? Traveling abroad? Hiking a big mountain? Before you go, there’s one Google Maps trick you need to know: 

You can download an offline map of your destination ahead of your excursion. It’s easy!

• Just open Google Maps and search for the location. 
• Tap the name or address of the place > More > Download offline map.
• Adjust the map if needed and confirm the download. 

🗺️ Find the offline map in the app's menu and tap it to navigate offline. It’s always worth testing out before you’re stuck without service!

✅ The countdown is on! Get tips daily in The Current Life Hacks newsletter, coming soon. Sign up now. Be the first to get it!

Pencils confused Shakespeare. 2B or not 2B?

📱☀️ The answer: 95 degrees. That's the highest temperature Apple says your iPhone can handle without acting quirky. Remember to keep your devices cool as the summer heats up.

🧮 Math mea culpa: Oh boy, I made a math goof yesterday. The problem was 6/2(2+1)=X, and my solution was off. According to the order of operations (remember PEMDAS or BODMAS?), the correct answer is actually 9, not what I wrote. Yes, brackets first. My apologies and thanks to those eagle-eyed readers for pointing it out! 

✅ Reminder to check out today’s sponsor, Masterworks. It’s fine companies like these that help us keep this newsletter free to you! I’ll see you tomorrow with another issue of the best tech newsletter in the universe! — Kim