4 crazy MacBook ideas, or "Intel Outside"

There's something distinctly odd going on with the relationship between Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL). I have some theories why, and what it means for the future of the MacBook. Let's discuss, in The Long View... Intel Capital plans to hand out hundreds of millions of dollars to PC-makers to help them compete with Apple's MacBook Air. As Agam Shah reports...

The Intel Capital Ultrabook Fund will invest in companies developing ...sensors and touch, longer battery life, thinner designs and improved storage capacity. ... [B]uilding thinner and lighter products should give laptops more appeal.
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Ultrabooks in the future will resemble Apple's MacBook Air, with models less than...0.8 inches thick, and at mainstream prices...around $800 or lower.

Reading the news earlier, I was struck by what this overt move says about Intel's relationship with Apple -- and what we can imply about the future of the MacBook. Intel is talking freely about it, in a way that's like rubbing Steve Jobs' nose in excrement.