MacRumors

Apple rose to 3rd place in the annual Fortune 500 list of the top U.S. corporations based on gross revenue, trailing behind only Walmart and Exxon Mobil. Apple's previous rankings include 5th place in 2015 and 2014, 6th place in 2013, 17th place in 2012, 35th place in 2011 and 56th place in 2010.

Other notable carriers, technology companies, and Apple suppliers on the list include AT&T (10th), Verizon (13th), Amazon.com (18th), HP (20th), Microsoft (25th), IBM (31st), Alphabet (36th), Intel (51st), Cisco Systems (54th), Oracle (77th), Qualcomm (110th), Facebook (157th), and Broadcom (331st).

Apple's profile highlighted the company's recent slowdown in iPhone and iPad sales, push into India, and the much-rumored Apple Car.

After more than a decade of solid growth fueled first by the iPod music player and then by the even more popular iPhone, Apple finally appeared to hit a wall. Still the most profitable publicly-traded company in the world, Apple’s iPhone 6S and 6S Plus upgrades barely outsold their predecessors after arriving on the market at the end of 2015, while sales of the iPad tablet computer continued to shrink throughout the year. In April 2015, the Apple Watch arrived to mixed reviews and modest sales. And though debate raged for a bit about the state of Apple’s sales in China amid a slowing economy there — including an unusual August 2015 email from CEO Tim Cook to CNBC host Jim Cramer claiming no summer slowdown — the year ended on a weak note for the company in Asia. Lately, hopes have turned to the next iPhone upgrade cycle and a push to focus on India, where Apple’s market share remains miniscule. Still, even with the growing concerns, Apple’s next big leap came into view in 2015. Dubbed Project Titan and staffed with hordes of former car industry experts, Apple’s effort to leapfrog the automobile market with an electric masterpiece likely won’t reach consumers for a few more years. But when it does, Cook and company could be riding high again.

Apple's revenues topped $233.7 billion during the 2015 fiscal year, a 27.9 percent year-over-year increase. While Walmart and Exxon Mobil posted higher gross revenues of $482.1 billion and $246.2 billion respectively, note that Apple's annual profits of $53.4 billion were more than both companies earned combined.

The Indian government is prepared to allow Apple to open its first three planned retail outlets in the country without any sourcing requirement for their first few years of business, reports Times of India.

As a rule, 30 percent of goods sold by foreign companies must be manufactured or produced in the country, a requirement Apple does not meet as its products are largely made in China.

That obstacle initially appeared to have been removed for Apple last year, when India exempted retailers selling state-of-the-art goods from the rule, prompting the company to file a new application with the Indian government.

However, a recommendation from the country's Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) to allow Apple to move ahead with single-brand retail outlets was shot down by the ministry of finance, which decided Apple's products do not fall into the cutting-edge technology category.

Now, the DIPP and the finance ministry appear to be open to the idea of allowing Apple to set up shop in the country without immediately complying with the 30 percent rule. This would allow the company to look at the option of manufacturing in India and begin sourcing components locally as volume increases.

Apple has reportedly already informed the government that it has started buying chargers from the country, which are also being exported.

"It is only fair to insist on some local production and two-three years is a reasonable period. Five years may be too long," said the Times of India source, who did not wish to be identified.

The developments follow Apple CEO Tim Cook's recent weeklong visit to India, where he met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other local business leaders, actors, politicians, and developers.

During the visit, Apple announced the launch of a Maps development center in Hyderabad and an iOS app and design accelerator in Bangalore. Last quarter, Apple saw its revenue from India grow 56 percent, surpassing $1 billion.

Apple recently updated the homepage of its website with a tribute to legendary boxer Muhammad Ali, who died on Friday at age 74. Ali was admitted to a hospital earlier in the week due to respiratory ailments, which were further complicated due to a lengthy battle with Parkinson's disease.

The tribute on Apple's website includes a quote that reads, "The man who has no imagination has no wings." Apple has been a long-time supporter and admirer of Ali, showcasing the boxer in one of its famous "Think Different" campaign videos back in 1997.

Tony Fadell, widely known as the "father" of the iPod and the creator of the Nest Learning Thermostat, today announced he is leaving Nest and Nest parent company Alphabet.

Fadell, Nest's founder, has been with Google since it acquired Nest for $3.2 billion in 2014 and has worked on projects like Google Glass in addition to continuing to run Nest Labs.

In a blog post, Fadell says he has decided the time is right to "leave the Nest," a decision that was originally made late last year. Fadell will not be present for day to day activities at Nest, but he plans to remain involved with the company as an advisor to Alphabet and Larry Page.

While there is never a perfect time to transition, we've grown Nest to much more than a thermostat company. We've created a hardware + software + services ecosystem, which is still in the early growth stage and will continue to evolve to move further into the mainstream over the coming years. The future of Nest is equally as bright given the strong and experienced leadership team in place, as well as the two-year product roadmap we've developed together to ensure the right future direction. [...]

I will miss this company and my Nest family (although I'll be around to provide advice and guidance and help the team with the transition), but I am excited about what's coming next, both for Nest and for me.

Fadell says his new role as advisor will provide him with "time and flexibility" to pursue new opportunities and "create and disrupt other industries." He's leaving Nest with a two-year roadmap in place and Marwan Fawaz, a former Motorola executive, will be joining Nest as CEO.

According to Bloomberg, Fadell's departure follows some recent issues at Nest, including a long length of time between product releases and software issues with the Nest Protect smoke detector that led to a recall.

In recent months, Nest employees complained publicly about Fadell's management, while claiming the business had missed sales targets, botched upgrades and delayed future products

Tony Fadell, in addition to being known for his work at Nest Labs, is credited as one of the original creators of the iPod, heading up the project as senior vice president of the iPod division from 2006 to 2008. Fadell started at Apple in 2001 and helped to produce early versions of Apple's iconic music player.

Ahead of its Worldwide Developers Conference, set to kick off on June 13, Apple has updated its official WWDC app with a new look and a new version that works on the fourth-generation Apple TV. The update also adds support for live streaming on iOS and tvOS and adds multitasking support on compatible iPads.

A tvOS version of this app is now available, so you can stream and download videos from WWDC 2016 and previous conferences on Apple TV. This update supports live streaming on iOS and tvOS. It also supports multitasking on iOS 9 on iPad.

The WWDC app is designed to be used by both conference attendees and developers who were not able to obtain tickets for the event. In addition to providing on-site tools for viewing start times for labs, sessions, and events, the app also offers the ability to watch live streaming sessions with Apple engineers.

With the new tvOS version of the WWDC app, developers who are not attending the San Francisco conference will be able to virtually attend sessions through their television screens.

Apple has also released a schedule of sessions that will take place during the conference, many with humorous names to conceal information that won't be available until iOS 10 and OS X 10.12 are unveiled at the keynote event.

The Worldwide Developers Conference starts on June 13 with a keynote that will take place at 10:00 a.m. at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco. Apple will likely live stream the keynote on both its website and on the Apple TV, and MacRumors will also provide live coverage on MacRumors.com and through the MacRumorsLive Twitter account.

Apple's WWDC app can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Food delivery company GrubHub has added Apple Pay as a payment option in the latest update to its GrubHub and Seamless apps (via TechCrunch).

The company follows in the footsteps of rivals Caviar, Door Dash, and Postmates in supporting Apple's mobile payment platform, and means that users of its two apps can now pay for their food using cards registered in the native iOS Wallet app.

Originally founded in 2004, GrubHub began as a website where users could order from local restaurants offering home delivery services. It later merged with rival company Seamless and expanded to offer its own service for restaurants that don't otherwise usually deliver. Last year GrubHub processed $2.4 billion in sales, 60 percent of which was generated through its mobile apps.

The move signals another domestic win for Apple's mobile payment platform, and appears to confirm that the company's recently stated aim to aggressively expand the service both at home and abroad is making progress.

Speaking to Fortune yesterday, Apple said its mobile payment platform is gaining a million new users each week, but the company stopped short of revealing the overall number of Apple Pay users. It also said that transaction volume through the service is five times what it was a year ago, and that payment volume within apps more than doubled in the second half of 2015.

In related news, The Verge reported today that Walmart has announced its intention to partner with ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft in order to trial a new grocery delivery service, in a move that will put it in direct competition with Amazon's recently expanded AmazonFresh service.

Customers will soon be able to place their food orders online, for Walmart staff to prepare their groceries and then call local Uber and Lyft drivers to deliver the items, at a delivery charge of between $7 to $10, which is paid to Walmart. According to the company, the pilot program will begin within the next two weeks and initially operate in Denver and Phoenix.

The Unicode Consortium recently approved 72 new emoji for inclusion in Unicode 9, set to be released on June 21. New emoji range from expanded smileys and people to new animals, food, and sports.

Notable smileys include rolling on the floor laughing, drooling face, and nauseated face, while the people/body category gains shrug, selfie, and face palm. New animal emoji include gorilla, fox face, deer, shark, and owl, and some of the new foods include avocado, potato, croissant, pancakes, salad, and bacon.

There are a line of new medals, objects like a scooter and a canoe, and emoji to represent boxing gloves, martial arts uniforms, wrestlers, fencing, juggling, and more. Emojipedia has shared mockups and a full list of upcoming emoji.

The emoji above serve as simple mockups and are not representative of what the actual emoji will look like on various devices, but Emojipedia has created them in the Apple style. Apple and Google's designers will actually custom design emoji based on the Unicode Consortium's guidelines for each character, crafting them to fit in with existing emoji.

Though the Unicode Consortium is releasing Unicode 9 on June 21, the new emoji will not be available on iOS and Mac devices until Apple implements support for them, which can sometimes take several months. Apple currently supports Unicode 8, which introduced emoji like taco, burrito, unicorn face, and popcorn, along with emoji skin tone modifiers.

With the release of Unicode 9 on the horizon, the Unicode Consortium has already begun considering candidates for Unicode 10, with dumpling, takeout box, fortune cookie, orange heart, sled, and more under consideration.

Samsung today introduced the Gear IconX, a set of wireless earbuds that are similar in style to the Bragi Dash. The IconX earbuds have no wires to connect them to one another and no wire to plug them into a smartphone or other device, instead communicating wirelessly over Bluetooth.

Priced at $199.99, the IconX earbuds feature 4GB of internal storage to hold music and use hooks to securely fit into an ear. There are also built-in fitness sensors for monitoring movement and heart rate, with the data able to be synced to Samsung's S Health app, and there's a built-in voice coach feature. Touch gestures like tapping and swiping on the earbud are used for skipping tracks and changing the volume.

When not in use, the earbuds can be placed into a pill-shaped case which also serves as a backup battery, offering two full charges. The battery inside the IconX lasts for one and a half hours when streaming music or for three and a half hours when playing music stored on the earbuds themselves.

Samsung debuted the new earbuds at an event in New York and gave several tech sites a hands-on demo, giving us a first look at some early impressions. According to The Verge, IconX is "pretty good" at blocking outside noises, while TechCrunch points out Samsung is marketing the earbuds as a workout-only accessory given the "dismal" battery life.

Samsung's Gear IconX earbuds come as rumors suggest Apple is preparing to remove the headphone jack from its iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus devices, set to be released this fall. There have also been rumors indicating Apple is working on its own set of wireless Bluetooth earphones that would be sold alongside the iPhone 7 as a premium accessory with many of the same features in the IconX.

Samsung plans to debut the Gear IconX in blue, black, and white in the third quarter of 2016.

The company has also announced an updated waterproof Gear Fit 2 fitness tracker with a wider 1.5-inch curved Super AMOLED display, 4GB storage, GPS, a heart rate monitor, a barometer for measuring altitude, and features for automatically detecting exercise activities. The Gear Fit 2 will be available for pre-order starting tomorrow at select retailers and available in stores on June 10.

According to Apple's system status page, multiple store services are currently experiencing an outage. The App Store, Apple TV App Store, Mac App Store, iTunes in the Cloud, and the Volume Purchase Program are unavailable for some users.

The outage started just after 12:30 p.m., and we have also heard reports of problems with Apple Music and Apple News, though those are not service outages currently listed on the system status page.

Apple is investigating the issue and will bring the services back online as soon as possible.

Update: Several more iCloud services are now experiencing issues, as seen on Apple's system status page.

Update 3:40: The App Stores and some Apple services are back online, but iCloud Backup, iCloud Drive, Mail Drop, Photos, and a few other service remain offline.