As the Obama administration attempts to quell concerns over mass data collection, the U.S. intelligence community is drawing more fire from governments, including its own.

Dave Girard, a graphics professional writing for Ars Technica, has taken an extensive look at the recently released Mac Pro. He says that, despite the high price, it’s a good value, with powerful graphics processors, and he praises the machine’s quietness, low power consumption, and tiny footprint. However, Girard is critical of the Mac Pro’s relatively low processor clock speeds and lack of an option for a second CPU socket.

Feeling mischievous? Just a little geeky? In this final chapter of “Take Control of Apple TV,” Josh Centers shows you how to take your Apple TV beyond what Apple intended, in three ways: playing video from otherwise unavailable sources via the Plex media management system, recording live TV to your Mac with an Elgato EyeTV HD and then showing it on the Apple TV, and getting around DNS-based region restrictions.

Apple has updated its iWork productivity suite for Mac, iOS, and iCloud, restoring some missing features and letting users password-protect documents shared via iCloud.

République is a stealth-action game, with controls so simple that it’s accessible to even casual gamers. Its graphics, controls, and setting set a whole new bar for mobile gaming.

After ten years, LogMeIn is dropping the free tier of its remote access service. Users will have seven days after their next login to convert to a LogMeIn Pro account, which starts at $99 per year. This change also affects purchasers of the LogMeIn Ignition apps for iOS and Android, which cost up to $149.99 and have been replaced by free apps — the company promises “significant discounts” and “generous terms” to “ease the transition.” LogMeIn’s other products, including join.me and Cubby, are unaffected by this change.

For many writers and gamers, nothing beats an old-fashioned “clicky” keyboard. But the keyboard’s feel depends on what sort of mechanical switches are used in the keys, and there are a number of different types. Even the vaunted Cherry MX switches come in several different color-coded varieties. Alex Cocilova, writing for PCWorld, explains the differences in available switches — including required actuation force, noise, and multitasking performance. If you’ve been considering a mechanical keyboard, be sure to read this first.

Online backup company Backblaze has produced another report on hard drive reliability, this time looking at specific vendors and models. Overall, drives from Hitachi (now owned by Western Digital) came out on top, with a 96.9 percent survival rate after 36 months. Second was Western Digital, whose drives had a quick initial die-off, but then stabilized with an overall 94.8 percent survival rate. In a distant third place was Seagate with a 73.5 percent survival rate. In spite of that, Backblaze is now buying mostly 4 TB Seagate drives due to their low cost and steady performance; the company also likes the Western Digital 3 TB Red drives.

The Apple TV may not have been intended as a gaming device, but thanks to AirPlay Mirroring, the combination of an iOS device and an Apple TV can make for a surprisingly compelling gaming experience. In this chapter of the in-progress "Take Control of Apple TV," Josh Centers describes some iOS games that are optimized for the Apple TV and offers some tips on how to reduce AirPlay latency.

President Obama has announced modest reforms to the NSA spying practices revealed by former contractor Edward Snowden. Various organizations have graded the reforms, but the real question is whether Congress will take the necessary actions.

The Web-based Trello collaboration tool has been refreshed with a redesigned boards page — they’re now arranged in a tight grid — along with customizable backgrounds for each board. You can also star boards for quick access, and Fog Creek Software has added a boards drawer to make it easier to jump between boards. Since boards tend to map to high-level projects, many of us were having trouble moving among our large collections of boards. Some of Trello’s heavier styling elements have also been removed, leaving a flatter look and improving performance.

Streaming music service Rdio is now free on the Web, where it’s supported by ads. Featuring a library of 20 million tracks, Rdio lets you play whatever music you desire, or it can generate personalized “stations” like those of Pandora and iTunes Radio. Rdio Unlimited remains available for $9.99 per month, offering ad-free playback and use of the Rdio mobile app.

Umoove Experience is a fascinating proof-of-concept that points to a future era of motion control for mobile games, and while it’s not yet ready for prime time, Josh Centers has high hopes for what it could mean for both the disabled and the mainstream gaming community.

At last! The latest version of Google’s Chrome Web browser has added tab icons to notify you if a tab is playing audio, accessing your microphone, or being cast to a Google Chromecast. The new audio alert icon should make it easier to find and silence annoying autoplay videos, such as on sites like -cough- Macworld. The other interesting addition is a preview of the new supervised users mode (ideal for young children), which lets you see a user’s browsing history and restrict access on a per-site basis.