Samsung reported lackluster second-quarter earnings due to slowing smartphone sales on Tuesday. “Operating profit for the world’s biggest chipmaker and smartphone maker rose 5.7% to 14.9 trillion won ($13.3 billion) in the second quarter,” CNBC writes. “The Apple components supplier and smartphone rival said operating profit from the mobile business sank 34% from a year ago, and warned of stiffer competition in the second half.”

Facebook is redesigning its mobile app’s navigation bar, CNet reports. At the bottom of the screen for iPhones, and the top of the screen for Android phones, users can soon expect to find shortcuts for their favorite Facebook products. “Previously, everyone in the same country saw the same five icons,” CNet notes.

The number of smartphone shipments in China continues to decline, Apple Insider reports, citing new data from Counterpoint Research’s Market Monitor service. “The continuing decline was attributed to consumers keeping their older models rather than buying new ones,” it writes. “Huawei, helped by the growth of its sub brand Honor, was the only manufacturer to post year-over-year growth.”

Viacom is acquiring digital media company AwesomenessTV. The network reaches 158 million subscribers and approximately 300 million monthly views.  AwesomenessTV was majority owned by Comcast/NBCUniversal which has a 51% stake in the company. Terms were not disclosed.

HipChat, the workplace chat app, is being discontinued. Also being discontinued is Atlassian's own would-be HipChat replacement, Stride. In a series of tweets, Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield says that Slack is purchasing the IP for both products to “better support those users who choose to migrate” to its platform.

President Donald Trump tweeted today that Twitter was "shadow banning" or  limiting visibility of prominent Republicans, such as party chair Ronna McDaniel. The tweet came after a story in Vice magazine. In fact, the accounts did show up during a general search. They didn't automatically populate in a drop-down bar when typing in the name. Twitter said it does not "shadow ban." The company addressed the automatic populating issue, noting it was do to a bug being repaired. The social media site stated it does not make judgments based on political views.

Verizon Digital Media Services tapped Ariff Sidi, previously Fox Networks Group’s senior vice president, digital products and platforms, as its Chief Product Officer. At VDMS, part of the Oath division, Sidi will oversee the global product portfolio of live-streaming and video-on-demand delivery, monitoring and content delivery network services for broadcasters and content providers. 

Given GDPR and the California Consumer Privacy Act, digital ad options are changing. “The pendulum has swung too far” toward programmatic advertising directed at users’ profiles using third-party data," Forrester analyst Susan Bidel noted. She says the world is getting “bifurcated” toward two kinds of targeting: First, users who are engaged with your brand in some way, as customers or visitors. Second, contextual marketing, where ad buys are based on the surrounding content.

The phone's $999 starting price average is steep. But the resale price is 85% of the original. Those buying in bulk are paying about 75% of the original price. These are much higher percentages than previous iPhone models. The high asking price means that iPhone X users are indeed getting a bang for their many bucks.

Microsoft just reported strong earnings for the fourth quarter of its 2018 fiscal year. During the period, the tech giant reported revenue of $30.09 billion better than the $29.21 billion that analysts were expecting, CNBC writes. Of note: “Search ad revenue growth was flat sequentially, but it was up year over year, at 12 percent.”