Unlike a Google Chrome notebook, an Apple iX wouldn’t be just a dumb client for remote apps. But it would have an instinctive and intimate relationship with your apps and files elsewhere on the network. Screen Sharing would be fundamentally woven into the OS. If you’re on the Internet, your Apple iX could “find” your Mac OS 10.7 desktop, run the fullscreen code from its installed apps, and relate to its files just as naturally as anything you had on your local device.

Yeah, the Apple iX is pretty out there. Let’s not even log any of that in as Speculation. It’s just an interesting idea to play with. I’ve no idea how, for example, Apple could even market such a thing. They’d need to make it clear that it’s meant to be “the power of the desktop with the simplicity the iPad.” Many observers would instinctively think of the Apple iX as “way more complicated and expensive than an iPad, while deleting away all of the useful features that make a ‘real’ notebook so attractive.”

(The solution? Underscore the fact that “Apple iX” translates to “Apple 9.” Even the snarkiest columnist, analyst, or message-board wag would be enamored by a computer that’s seven steps more awesome than the Apple //e that they pounded on all during school. They should paint the Apple iX a creamy tan, with chocolate-colored keycaps, just for good measure.)

If the Apple iX is a weird idea, the basic premise is sound. If Apple were to crossbreed their two most important products of the past ten years, the offspring couldn’t help but be interesting. Go to your local zoo and check out the long, long lines to see the Tigraffe if you doubt it.