After pandemic-fueled work- and school-from home trends drove unexpected gains beginning in Q2 2020, worldwide Q2 PC shipments, including tablets, fell for the second consecutive quarter, dropping 14% year on year to 105 million units, reported Canalys Wednesday. The research firm cited inflation, COVID-19 lockdowns in China and slowed demand in consumer and education.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative often found itself weighing the possible harm to U.S. consumers from the Lists 3 and 4A Section 301 tariffs against the need to give the duties enough teeth to curb China’s allegedly unfair trade practices, said the agency in its 90-page “remand determination,” filed Monday in docket 1:21-cv-52 at the U.S. Court of International Trade.

An anticipated FCC order on ATSC 3.0 multicasting is taking longer than expected and may be slowing aspects of the transition to the new standard, broadcast industry officials told us. The Media Bureau has continued to grant requests for special temporary authority as a workaround, but some say that’s not enough. “We have markets backed up where we aren’t going to be able to launch until we have this flexibility,” said John Hane, CEO of 3.0 consortium BitPath.

Bipartisan legislation that would ban Big Tech platforms from self-preferencing products won’t get to the Senate floor, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, told us last week. Other Republicans voiced frustration in interviews over comments from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who reportedly told fundraiser attendees last week that the American Innovation and Choice Online Act (S-2992) doesn’t have the 10 Republican votes needed to clear the 60-vote threshold.

Charter Communications, like Comcast, had its broadband growth slow to a halt between Q1 and Q2. Charter ended Q2 with 28.26 million residential broadband subscribers -- up 54,000 year over year but about flat from the previous quarter. The sputtering growth made some analysts bearish. The two companies' broadband news "had a decidedly 'end of an era' feel," MoffettNathanson's Craig Moffett wrote investors.

The internet industry raised alarms with a California social media bill as state Senate appropriators teed up the bipartisan measure for possible vote next Thursday, at a livestreamed hearing Monday. The Appropriations Committee could also soon vote whether to advance to the floor three other website regulation measures focused on children, plus a bill to implement the national 988 suicide prevention hotline and a proposal to require standards for emergency alerts.

Two years after consumers' outsized spending on residential electronics projects for stay-at-home COVID-19 pandemic living, custom and specialty electronics dealers and their buying groups are responding to the inevitable shift from home spending to travel and services.

“It's no longer a question of whether global consumers will come back to the cinema for blockbuster movies," said Imax CEO Richard Gelfond on a Q2 earnings call Thursday. “They are back,” he said. Imax's domestic box office in June surpassed pre-COVID-19 pandemic June 2019, he said. Q2 was on par with Q2 that year, he said.

Roku saw a “significant slowdown" in Q2 TV advertising spend, due to the deteriorating macroeconomic environment, said CEO Anthony Wood on a quarterly earnings call Thursday. Shares plunged 23.1% Friday, hitting a 52-week low at $62, before closing at $65.52.

Apple product constraints in the September quarter will be improved vs. the June quarter, but the company isn’t forecasting when the chip shortage will end, said CEO Tim Cook on a Thursday earnings call. On its April earnings call, Cook had warned of a $4 billion-$8 billion hit for the June quarter due to silicon shortages and COVID-19 factory shutdowns in China.