Jason Cross, Melissa J. Perenson, PCWorld

Are Android tablets poised to fall in price, again? That’s what it sounds like based on comments by Nvidia vice president Rob Csonger. In a call with investors, Csonger discussed the existence of a reference design for a $199 Android tablet running the company’s Tegra 3 processor. What’s noteworthy here is that, in the five months since Nvidia took the stage at its CES 2012 press conference, the company has lowered the target price of its inexpensive tablet platform from $249 to $199.

That 20 percent price decrease reflects the ongoing price pressures in the non-Apple tablet market, where the Amazon Kindle Fire dominates among 7-inch models, and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 dropped in price by 38 percent compared with last fall’s model. However, neither of those models are performance barn burners, and neither features a quad-core processor with the potential power of Nvidia’s Tegra 3 platform.

If you think people couldn’t stop talking about Ultrabooks a few months ago, just wait until June. That’s when Intel will make available the dual-core version of the Ivy Bridge CPUs, ushering in a whole new wave of slim laptops. One such Ultrabook will be the new Asus Zenbook Prime UX31A, successor to the Zenbook that launched with the first Ultrabooks at the end of last year. We liked that system a lot, save for a few issues. With the Zenbook Prime UX31A, Asus seeks to address some of those.

I got my hands on a pre-production system that is nearly up to the quality standards of the final shipping units, or so I’m told. It’s really very nice. Much like the original Zenbook, it’s all metal with a very solid and rigid feel. The 13.3-inch UX31A weighs a little less than 3 pounds, and has a very small and light power adaptor. The left side provides access to a USB 3.0 port, headset jack, and SD card slot. The right has the power plug, another USB 3.0 port, mini-VGA, and mini-HDMI. As with other exceptionally thin Ultrabooks, you’ll have to use the included mini-to-VGA dongle to plug into a legacy display or projector. Asus supplies a USB-to-Ethernet adaptor for those needing wired connections, but the dual-band 802.11 a/b/g/n radio should provide good wireless throughput.

Illustration by Neil StevensMake Your Gmail Work for You

Your time is valuable. On the Gmail team, we work hard to offer a user ex­­perience that won't bog you down. But we also want to share some tips for be­­ing even more productive with Gmail.

Alex Gawley, Gmail Product ManagerFocus on search, not folders: Google was built on search, and we've aimed to bring that same search experience to Gmail. Studies show that users save time when they search for an email instead of categorizing it into a folder. In Gmail, you can quickly find the exact message you want by typing keywords into the search box, or you can rely on the program's search autocomplete to specify the attributes you want (try typing 'from:[sender]' or 'has photos').

Remember a couple weeks ago when we discussed Ivy Bridge CPUs running a lot hotter than Sandy Bridge CPUs when overclocked? Well Loyd Case found a site that did a little experimentation and solved the mystery. (Hint: it's the awful thermal compound Intel uses.)

We're joined by Facebook expert Mark Sullivan to talk about the impact of Facebook's IPO, which should happen today. I think we're all in agreement that the company is way overvaulued, and will start snapping up other companies when the big flood of money comes in. With any luck, they'll avoid Yahoo's object lesson in how not to spend money.

If the results of a new PCWorld/Macworld survey are any guide, the forthcoming iPhone 5 with LTE is going to be a big hit.

Large numbers of people plan to buy or upgrade to the first 4G iPhone, many of them citing the new LTE wireless technology as a main reason, the survey suggests.

Huawei's MediaPad 10 tabletHuawei brought its MediaPad 10 tablet to CTIA 2012. The tablet was first introduced at Mobile World Congress in February, as was the Ascend line of smartphones.

Neither has changed much since then, and both remain in limbo in terms of U.S. availability, but we did catch a few new changes in the tablet's software and hardware.

AT&T is making an ambitious jump into home security and automation with AT&T Digital Life, a service that will run on its wireless infrastructure. The company announced the venture here at the CTIA trade show at an offsite event in the New Orleans' Garden District. Trials of the new offering begin this summer in Atlanta and Dallas.

Home automation is a departure from AT&T's core products and services, but the Digital Life service, says Ainsley M. Sadio, assistant vice president for AT&T Digital Life, is a complement to the company's existing service offerings.

CTIA 2012 in New Orleans starts May 8.CTIA 2012 kicks off next week in the Big Easy, and PCWorld will be at the show to bring you all the latest mobile news from New Orleans.

Unlike Mobile World Congress (MWC) or even the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), CTIA is more of a U.S.-focused gathering for the wireless industry. Here's what we know so far.

I lot of headlines this week proclaimed that Intel's new Ivy Bridge processors actually run a lot hotter than the Sandy Bridge processors they're set to replace. The truth is not that simple. We'll break it down for you in the podcast.

We also discuss the merits of Nvidia's new GeForce GTX 690 graphics card, which is essentially two GeForce GTX 680 cards for the price of...well...two.