While the hysteria surrounding the 3G iPhone has some in New Zealand lining up to be the world’s first owner (see above) some lucky Potuguese have already opened the boz and booted up and here we have the first unboxing photos of the future of communication, ladies avert your eyes.

As the world’s leading manufacturer of mobile phones Nokia is not one to sit back politely and miss out on the touchscreen wars being waged by Apple, but will their Haptikos technology revoluntionise touch?

Taking their tactile technology to the bounds of comprehension for the lay inventor the patent speaks of creating “… variable and controllable user perceived surface roughness or friction coefficient“ by placing a “…plurality of closely spaced voltage controllable protuberances” that alter on the surface of the touchscreen.

With a working prototype and hard at work on drag and scrolling functions, Nokia may be about to take it to the iPhone once and for all.