When Apple bought multitouch maestros FingerWorks for their talent (and patents, 'natch), they kept FingerWorks.com and all it's old product photos and pictures online and intact. No longer, according to MacRumors:

The removal seems to correspond with the impending announcement of an Apple tablet later this month. One possible explanation is that Apple will finally be implementing many of the same advanced multi-touch keyboard gestures that were originally pioneered by Fingerworks.

And, again to speculate widely, a possibly closely aligned iPhone 4.0, since Apple has proven over and over again that they're very good at leveraging technology developed for one platform to another.

The New York Times says Apple has been working on a multitouch version of their iWork office suite -- Pages word processor, Numbers spread sheet, and Keynote presentations -- for their rumored upcoming iTablet/iSlate, along with complex gestures based on technology they acquired from Fingerworks.

“The tablet should offer any number of unique multitouch experiences — for example, three fingers down and rotate could mean ‘open an application,’ ” said one former engineer, who asked not to be named because Apple demands secrecy from all current and former employees.

Sounds a little complex and obtuse from a company whose success to date has been primarily based on simplicity, but Apple could feel multitouch has been introduced well enough by the iPhone, trackpads, and even the Magic Mouse that users could now handle more complex gestures. We'd imagine, however, that the more complex the gesture, the more complex the function it's intended to invoke -- meaning average users could stick to the simple stuff.

Another former Apple designer said a team at the company had “spent the past couple of years working on a multitouch version of iWork,” Apple’s answer to Microsoft’s Office software suite. This could indicate that Apple wants the tablet to be a fully functional computer, rather than a more passive device for reading books and watching movies.

It also makes us think a multitouch version of iWork would be just great on the iPhone and iPod touch as well (right Apple?)

For their part, 9to5mac also points out the previous rumors about Apple seeking engineers for an online iWork WebApp. An integrated offering with local and server storage and access, perhaps?

AppleInsider has found yet another multi-touch patent application, this one expanding on Apple's already massive portfolio to include the ability to recognize which finger is touching, distinguish between palms and fingers, and enable all manner of restin

unprecedented integration of typing, resting, pointing, scrolling, 3D manipulation, and handwriting into a versatile, ergonomic computer input device

Check out the full article for more, and let us know if you think this is more fuel for the iTablet hype machine, or if Apple could have something else up their sleeve?

We know the score. Apple now holds a veritable smorgasbord of multi-touch patents, some dating way back before the iPhone, and some coming from their 2005 acquisition of a company called Fingerworks, and the innovative talents of Wayne Westerman and John Elias. But from whence did they draw their inspiration? MacRumors pulls the relevant quote from a University of Delware article:

"I had an ergonomic problem and I paired it with a motivation," Westerman said of the early inspiration. "I'd always felt that playing the piano was so much more graceful and expressive than using a computer keyboard, and I thought how great it would be if I pulled some of that expression from the piano to the computer experience."

Having suffered plenty of joint/wrist injuries, I know from personal experience how difficult it can be to type with traditional, hard smartphone keyboards. I abandoned my old Treo 680 when it was too physically painful to push in the tiny keys anymore. The iPhone, however, is nothing but a pleasure, so the above comments truly resonate with me.

It's also interesting to note that history aside, Apple is also looking towards the future, with job listings for multi-touch ninja "gesture algorithm" wizards.

So anyone else going to jump on the piano and try to figure out what iPhone 3.0 might hold for us?