These days, a smart city professional is more likely to talk your ear off not about cutting-edge technology but instead something much more analog: the average city resident’s wants and needs.

That’s because some experts say there’s been a shift in posture recently, from flashy to functional. Gone are the days in which would-be smart cities dream only of electric sheep, the new conventional wisdom goes.

Such a shift to prioritize residents’ needs raises an important question:

• What does the average American city resident think about smart city tech anyway?

To find out...We asked the Harris Poll to run a nationally representative survey of US city residents in late July. In the poll, we asked residents about their support for, awareness of, and engagement with a variety of smart city tech in their cities, from air-quality sensors to facial recognition.

• The overwhelming majority of our 3,185 respondents (87%) thought it was important for their cities to invest in emerging technologies.

Even so...That doesn’t mean every resident of every age in every city supports every piece of emerging technology equally. In fact, there were pretty big differences in levels of enthusiasm, awareness, and engagement with smart city tech depending on who you ask or what you ask about.

Dive into the results here.—DM

This story is part of our new package exploring smart cities—click here to view the full interactive series.

Tech winter is coming, at least according to this quarter’s Big Tech earnings reports.

Zoom in: Tech giants from Alphabet to Amazon have largely reported plans that follow a similar pattern: Cut discretionary budgets, reduce headcount, slow hiring, minimize investments, and finally, increase productivity without increasing resources.

• The decisions come amid a treacherous mix of geopolitical uncertainty, recession fears, rising energy and material costs, softening consumer demand, and a decline in ad spending.

“We want to make sure we’re using all resources as effectively and efficiently as possible,” Ruth Porat, CFO of Alphabet, said on the earnings call, adding, “We’re trying to be smart about redeploying where we can, finding efficiencies where we can while still investing for long-term growth.”

A sorta bright spot: Apple beat analyst estimates for revenue and earnings per share, but the company still plans to cut costs amid economic uncertainty—namely by slowing hiring, CEO Tim Cook told CNBC.

Read the full analysis on Big Tech’s cost-cutting push here.—HF

Every single year, e-waste from thrown out chargers amounts to 11,000 tons in the EU. For context, that’s equal in weight to, like, 11,000 walruses, or ~3.6 million bricks.

To curb this waste—and to make life easier for consumers—the EU approved a rule last week that requires portable electronic device makers to adopt USB-C as the standard charging port.

• Small electronics have until late 2024 to comply, while larger electronics won’t make the switch until 2026.

Last week, we asked what all of you thought of the mandate. Here’s what you said:

• The overwhelming majority (77%) of you said yes, this was the right call.
• Just 14% said it was the wrong decision.
• The remaining 10% shrugged and said, idk.

Zoom out: All eyes are on Apple due to its decision to use its proprietary Lightning ports for the iPhone rather than USB-C. The company has confirmed that USB-C phones are on the way on the EU’s timeline.

This week’s poll: Do you think it’s important for cities to invest their budgets in emerging technologies?

Yes
No
IDK

Stat: The 20 richest tech billionaires have collectively lost almost $500 billion in net worth this year, as of last Friday.

Quote: “Elements such as lithium, nickel, and cobalt do not just magically appear and transform into EV batteries and other components.”—Graham Evans, director of auto supply chain & technology at S&P Global Mobility, to Reuters

Read: Is the golden age of AI collaboration over?

Catch up on the top Emerging Tech Brew stories from the past few editions:

• How a fifth-generation farmer and software engineer uses tech in his fields
• Matter is finally live. We asked a few members why they joined the smart home standard
• Fleet electrification is opening up a new market for payments companies