Rich Mogull, computer security expert and TidBITS Security Editor, was recently interviewed by the New York Times Gadgetwise blog. In the wake of the Conficker virus scare, New York Times blogger Riva Richmond asked Rich about security on the Mac, and how Apple users can stay safe. The interview piqued enough interest to prompt a followup article as well.

CinemaView has announced that it is releasing the first Mini DisplayPort-compatible monitors. The company is currently offering 19, 21, and 24-inch models for $299, $399, and $499 respectively. With cast aluminum construction, and black-bordered optical glass fronts, the displays capture some semblance of Apple's design, and with the 24-inch model being $400 cheaper, these monitors might become attractive alternatives to Apple's high-end Cinema Displays.

Apple is on the verge of selling the one billionth app in the iTunes App Store. To celebrate the occasion, any customer purchasing an app between 12:01 AM 10-Apr-09 and when the one billionth app is sold will be entered into a contest with the chance to win a $10,000 iTunes gift card, an iPod touch, a Time Capsule, or a MacBook Pro. A list of the official contest rules is available on Apple's Web site.

In celebration of its app, iPodRip, having now transfered over one billion songs, The Little App Factory has announced a giveaway contest featuring $1,000 worth of prizes. The contest, running until 01-May-09, will grant nine winners an iPod touch, nano, shuffle, or a $50 gift certificate to the iTunes Store, as well as a free copy of iPodRip. All prizes will also be exchangeable for their retail value's worth of iTunes Store gift certificates. Contestants can enter by email, Twitter, or blogging - or by all three!

Looking for a way to hook up your Mini DisplayPort-equipped Mac to an HDTV? Ars Technica reports that accessories wholesaler Monoprice is offering a $14 Mini DisplayPort to HDMI Adapter. Most interestingly, the HDCP-compliant adapter enables playback of protected HD content on your Mac - such as you might buy from the iTunes Store - to be displayed on an HDTV, something that isn't possible on many monitors.

Want to be an iPhone developer but don't know where to start? You can now sit in on the Stanford University School of Engineering's iPhone development class for free. Stanford will be posting all 10 weeks of the course's lectures on iTunes U, as well as on the CS 193P course Web page. The class, taught by several Apple employees, is normally harder to get into than Studio 54, with 150 students competing for only 60 spots this semester.

Apple has announced that the annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) will be held 08-Jun-09 through 12-Jun-09 in San Francisco. It's certain that developers will be treated to details of Snow Leopard and the iPhone 3.0 software; the question is if Apple will use WWDC to launch one or both, as many anticipate.

Ars Technica is reporting that Apple has flipped the switch on the Genius sidebar for videos, activating the feature after an almost two week delay, but without requiring that users download a new version of iTunes. The feature had been cited in Apple's release notes for iTunes 8.1 and on their iTunes Web pages, but didn't appear at release. The Genius sidebar will now recommend videos to buy from the iTunes Store based on anonymous user information that's uploaded to Apple and compared to the purchases of other iTunes customers. Like the Genius sidebar for music, this feature can be toggled on or off.

To remain competitive in the financially strapped education market, Apple is keeping an old iMac available for schools. Apple's March 2009 eNews for Education newsletter states, "The white 17-inch iMac continues to be offered starting at $899." That model fell out of the mainstream iMac line in 2007. This is not the first time Apple has offered systems only to schools; the eMac was originally produced for the education market, and was made more generally available only later.

According to The Boy Genius Report, AT&T will start offering the iPhone for sale without a contract, starting 26-Mar-09. The commitment-free 8 GB and 16 GB models will retail for $599 and $699 (that's $400 more than the subsidized price!), and will be available only to existing customers who wish to add a line, purchase a gift, or upgrade (presumably from a different AT&T phone).

Jurors researching and sharing trial information via the iPhone and other mobile devices is proving to be a serious and widespread problem for many courts. Several major cases have had to declare mistrials after jurors were discovered to be posting trial information via Twitter and Facebook, and looking up trial-related information via Google. While jurors breaking rules via the Internet is nothing new, the widespread adoption of devices like the iPhone has made it far easier and more common.