Someone at ASUS has either loose-lips or delusions of grandeur; Crave has been told - from within the company, no less - that they're helping Apple to build a tablet version blending the best of MacBook Pro power and iPhone screen technology.  Now Crave, like every jaded tech site, is wary of Apple rumors and especially of those which promise something so mythical as a touch-interface laptop, but even on a second information dig their ASUS source was still protesting the story's authenticity.  What they're working on, apparently, is a brand new model rather than anything based on ASUS' existing range (as you would expect with Apple), predicted to have a Multi-Touch screen responding to finger presses rather than a pen-type stylus as on Windows-based Tablet PCs.  Apple have a variety of Tablet-type patents on their books, including onscreen keyboards and UI gadgets eminently suitable for a slate format MacBook.Sadly Crave couldn't milk any more details out of their contact (send 'em round here, guys, I've got some thumbscrews lying around somewhere), nor any word regarding authenticity of this iPad Touch design (which is still likely to be a fan-render) but as far as confirmation to the persistent rumor goes it's probably the best so far.