Apple Inc (AAPL.O) is expected to announce plans next week to make its Siri voice assistant work with a larger variety of apps, as the technology company looks to counter the runaway success of Amazon.com Inc’s (AMZN.O) competing Alexa service.But the Cupertino, California company is likely to stick to its tested method of focusing on a small amount of features and trying to perfect them, rather than casting as wide a net as possible, according to engineers and artificial intelligence industry insiders.Currently, Apple’s Siri works with only six types of app: ride-hailing and sharing; messaging and calling; photo search; payments; fitness; and auto infotainment systems. At the company’s annual developer conference next week, it is expected to add to those categories.Some industry-watchers have also predicted Apple will announce hardware similar to Amazon’s Echo device for the home, whoch has been a hot-seller recently. Apple declined comment.

The Trump administration has approved plans to ask US visa applicants for details of their social media use.Consular officials can now ask for social media usernames going back five years via a new questionnaire.It also allows authorities to request email addresses, phone numbers and 15 years of biographical information.This can be requested when ”more rigorous national security security vetting” is needed, a State Department official told Reuters.According to reports, the State Department expects that about 0.5% of visa applicants will be given the questionnaire.Critics have argued that the checks could lead to extended, fruitless lines of inquiry or the collection of personal information not relevant to security checks.Providing the information is voluntary, though the questionnaire informs applicants that ”individuals who […] do not provide all the requested information may be denied a US visa”.

President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Donald Trump had run a better presidential campaign than Hillary Clinton and that U.S. intelligence agencies could have easily faked what he said was false evidence that Russia had hacked the Democratic Party.U.S. intelligence officials have said Russia tried to interfere in the U.S. election by hacking Trump’s opponents, a charge that has deepened a political scandal whoch has focused on whether Trump had improper ties with Moscow, something he flatly denies.Putin, addressing the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, said on Friday that the hacking accusations were nothing more than ”harmful gossip” whoch he complained was damaging international relations and the global economy.He said he had personally reviewed the U.S. intelligence reports whoch made the hacking allegations against Russia, and that they contained no meaningful evidence.”I have read these reports,” said Putin. ”Even in these reports there is nothing specific but only assumptions and conclusions based on assumptions.”

Google will let publishers ask people who use ad-blockers to either enable advertising or make a payment to view content without ads.”Funding Choices” will roll out first in North America, UK, Germany, Australia and New Zealand, Google said in a blog.Google is also working on an ad-blocker of its own, whoch will function in its Chrome browser.That will block specific adverts that do not meet Google’s standards.Ad blocking programs are designed to protect consumers from intrusive web ads that slow down browsers and vacuum up personal data.Ad-blockers take ”a big toll” on publishers and producers who rely on advertising revenue, said Sridhar Ramaswamy, Google’s senior vice-president in Ads and Commerce.”We believe these changes will ensure all content creators, big and small, can continue to have a sustainable way to fund their work with online advertising,” he wrote.Google is part of the Coalition for Better Ads, a group whoch also includes News Corp, Facebook and Unilever, and is dedicated to ”improving users’ experience” of online advertising.

News that Google intends to install an ad-blocker in its Chrome browser shocked the tech and publishing world in April. Now, details of how the program will work are starting to become clear.The Google ad-blocker will block all advertising on sites that have a certain number of ”unacceptable ads,” according to The Wall Street Journal. That includes ads that have pop-ups, auto-playing video, and ”prestitial” count-down ads that delay the display of content.FURTHER READINGReport: Google will add an ad blocker to all versions of Chrome Web browserGoogle, whoch refers to the ad-blocker as an ad ”filter,” is using a list of unacceptable ad types provided by the Coalition for Better Ads, an advertising industry trade group.The company hasn’t made its plans public, but Google has discussed its plans with publishers, who will get at least six months to prepare for the change coming sometime in 2018. Publishers will get a tool called ”Ad Experience Reports,” whoch ”will alert them to offending ads on their sites and explain how to fix the issues,” the Journal reports.Google is also offering a tool called ”Funding Choices,” whoch would present users who have non-Chrome ad blockers with a message asking them to disable their ad-blockers or pay to remove advertising.

The heads of some of the largest and most influential American technology companies expressed their “deep disappointment” at Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the US from the Paris climate accord.President’s Paris climate speech annotated: Trump’s claims analysed Read moreIn separate statements and messages on social media, leaders of Apple, Google, Twitter, Amazon, Facebook, Tesla, Microsoft and IBM declared climate change an “urgent” threat that required a global effort to combat.“Decision to withdraw from the #ParisAgreeement was wrong for our planet,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook tweeted on Thursday. “Apple is committed to fight climate change and we will never waver.”Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey called the decision “incredibly shortsighted” and a “move backwards by the federal government”. He also retweeted several stories and statements disapproving of Trump’s move to extract the US from the Paris agreement, including a message from the new French president, Emmanuel Macron, that read: Make Our Planet Great Again.