HP is getting ready to expand its Netbook line beyond the well-received Mini-Note 2133 — the company recently started teasing the Vivienne Tam Digital Clutch, and now images and pricing for a “Mini 1000″ have appeared on the HP shopping site. As expected, the new rig is basically a non-glam version of the Digital Clutch, and specs appear to be right in line with what we’ve seen: 10-inch screen, sub-1-inch thickness, and 2.25-pound starting weight — and we’re guessing the Mini 1000 also gets the upgrade to an Intel Atom over the 2133’s VIA C7-M. Not bad at all for a starting price tag of $399 — hopefully we’ll find out a lot more soon.

Rumors are that this is the cheaper, consumer-oriented model, but that there will also be a 2133 successor that’s more expensive but also keeps the aluminum casing.

hpmininotepc.com is reporting his/her experiences with googles’ new chrome browser, here is an excerpt from the article;

I downloaded and ran it on my hp mini-note and was very impressed with the performance and the simplicity of the interface. On Google Chrome, I was happily browsing with 10 open tabs and no performance degradation.

The google chrome browser is not available for linux yet but you can get the windows download here;

Google Chrome

Sorry I couldn’t post more but I could read the article myself as I only have access to IE6 (which crashes when trying to open that page).

Read More Here

HP has always been confident that the 2133 Mini-Note would sell quickly, to the point where the company planned to build some two million units this year, and it sounds like that bet’s paying off — China’s Apply Daily is citing sources at HP Taiwan quoting worldwide sales growing 50 percent monthly. That’s pretty good for one of the more expensive small laptops on the market — we’ll see if that rumored cheaper edition moves even more.