After climbing up the Fortune 500 rankings the past few years, Apple is standing firm in the No. 5 spot it reached last year.

Walmart grabbed the top spot, followed by oil giants Exxon and Chevron, with Apple hanging in thanks to strong iPhone and Mac sales, although
Fortune noted slumping iPad sales are a point of concern.

A new report published today by Adobe demonstrates that, when it comes to both pay TV and the devices people choose for consuming digital media, Apple trounces the competition.

Having once dismissed its own Apple TV offering as just a “hobby,” the powers-that-be in Cupertino are likely to want to rethink that statement following the news that its set-top boxes doubled their share of premium video viewing quarter-over-quarter during the last year — overtaking Roku in the process.

Apple has confirmed that the Apple Watch is coming to a slew of new countries, as well as Apple Stores, this month.

Beginning Friday, June 26, customers in Italy, Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland and Taiwan will finally be able to throw down their cash for Apple’s debut wearable device by visiting the Apple Online Store or dropping into their local brick-and-mortar Apple retailer.

And that’s not all.

Jawbone’s fitness-tracking devices were among those booted out of the Apple Store to make room for the Apple Watch, but according to Jawbone’s senior product manager Jason Donahue, they’re about to make a return.

Donahue revealed this tidbit during a presentation in Japan earlier today, during which he told the press that the new UP2 fitness band is expected to hit Japanese Apple Stores in early July — and U.S. Apple Stores even earlier than this.

The redesign and relaunch of Beats Music is one of the most anticipated announcements Apple fans are expecting to hear about next week at WWDC. Apple spent $3 billion on Beats in an effort to take on the likes of Spotify and Pandora, but according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, all that effort won’t make Apple a ton of money.

Beats currently has about 300,000 paid subscribers while Spotify has 15 million. According to Munster’s math, even if Apple matched Spotify’s subscriber base the profits will be weak.

HBO made a splash with its streaming service HBO Now, and now its cheaper rival Showtime is ready to get in on the action too with its own streaming service that’s also launching exclusively with Apple.

Starting in July, iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV users will be able to purchase a stand-alone subscription to Showtime through the Showtime app to stream all of the company’s original programming. It’s just like HBO Now, only a little bit cheaper.

Kanye West was part of Jay Z’s small army of megastars that helped launch Tidal, but when it comes to his next album, Ye is reportedly looking to take the U2 route by releasing it on iTunes for free.

According to a new rumor on Twitter, Apple and Kanye are joining forces for the launch of the company’s new music streaming service. As a gift to the fans, Yeezy has agreed to release his new album ‘Swish’ for free after Apple paid him nearly double what he expected to make of album sales.

Hidden in HomeKit documentation published today is the intriguing confirmation that Apple TV will serve as the digital hub for Apple’s new home-automation setup.

It’s a reminder of just how seriously Apple now treats the set-top box that it dismissed as a “hobby” a few years ago.

Apple is likely to use next week’s Worldwide Developers Conference to announce the availability of Apple Watches in its brick-and-mortar retail stores, according to a new report. The announcement is said to be planned either as part of the WWDC keynote or directly afterward.

The home of the future arrived today and, while not exactly a whimper, it wasn’t much of a bang either.

Where are the smart voice-activated refrigerators? Where are the Jetsons-style gizmos that have us firing up our Apple Pay, and convince us that Apple is taking home automation seriously?

While there’s nothing wrong with what we got, it was the same predictable range of smart light bulbs, thermostats, and other gadgets that techies have had for years.

And after a year of waiting, we want more. Much more.