CBS

Americans spent $129 billion on consumer technology last year, but it's a good bet that number could fall in 2008, thanks to the slow economy.

If you're pondering a reduced gadget budget, though, don't despair.

There are many ways to reduce your expenses without going cold turkey on tech.

Whether it's piping free Internet video to your TV rather than paying for cable, selling your old gizmos to retailers for store credit on new gadgets or just shopping smarter on the Web, there are plenty of low-cost ways to keep yourself in the digital life to which you've become accustomed.

AT&T and Samsung on Monday introduced the Samsung Eternity, yet another touchscreen phone. The differentiator is that the phone supports AT&T Mobile TV, and the wireless carrier is offering a 30-day free trial for new subscribers.

The black-and-chrome device has a 3.2-inch touchscreen and haptic support that vibrates to confirm selections on the touchscreen.

With the holiday season approaching, the nonprofit One Laptop Per Child is looking to use advertising and an alliance with Amazon to provide more low-cost laptops for children in developing countries.

To promote this year's version of its Give One/Get One (G1G1) program, the Cambridge, Mass.-based OLPC has arranged for donations of television time, billboards and magazine ads by such major media companies as the News Corporation, CBS and Time Warner, according to a story in Sunday's New York Times.

Amazon Fulfillment

One of the biggest and glitziest shopping malls in Europe opened last week in London, in a test of British consumers' ability to keep spending during a steep economic downturn. The shopping center, Westfield London, is also shaping up as a vast experiment in making over the humble billboard.

CBS Outdoor, a division of the CBS media conglomerate, has installed more than 100 digital advertising screens at Westfield, including a giant one covering 60 square meters, or 646 square feet.

Microsoft released Silverlight 2 on Monday, the second major version of its platform for creating and delivering advanced multimedia applications and experiences in a Web browser.

The company also said it will continue to back Silverlight-related open-source communities, with funding for advanced Silverlight development based on the Eclipse Foundation's integrated development environment (IDE) and with new controls to developers via the Silverlight Control Pack.

In the second of a back-to-back move to generate more ad revenue from YouTube, Google is serving up what it calls "full-length TV dinners." A new deal with CBS makes it possible, with episodes of Dexter, Beverly Hills 90210, and Star Trek on deck.

Netflix has inked an agreement with Starz Entertainment under which Netflix subscribers will gain unlimited access to 2,500 additional movies and other choices from the Starz Play broadband subscription-movie service.

This latest deal follows on the heels of two recent Netflix agreements with the CBS Television Network and Disney-ABC Television Group, which add current-season episodes of popular CBS and ABC TV shows to the company's growing portfolio of online video content.

Web-savvy viewers routinely catch up with missed TV episodes online, but networks are split on screening them before their premiere.

For the third year, NBC plans an aggressive campaign to make new series widely available a week before their premieres.

Internet Movie Database, the company behind the popular imdb.com site, wants to give visitors a free viewing of every movie and TV show on the Internet and filmmakers a chance to show the world their films.

The Amazon.com subsidiary, which was started by an international group of movie fans, said Monday that users can watch 6,000 feature films such as Fever Pitch and Fiddler on the Roof, TV episodes such as Big Brother and CSI, and old classics such as Star Trek and Charlie's Angels on its Web site.

When Apple opened its iTunes App Store in July, the idea of a mass-market Web site that sells downloadable games, tools, and other applications for cell phones was a rarity. Handset owners could buy apps from their carriers or the occasional niche site. But these days, the app store concept is becoming commonplace. The question is, does the world need a warren of wireless app stores?