Many years from now when Tricorders are common place, we just might look back on October 30th 2009 as the birth of the first real tricorder. While the iPhone currently has motion, sound, light, location, radio wave and distance sensors, Jing Li a physical scientist, along with several other researchers at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California developed a working prototype of a harmful gas detector for the iPhone.

The team, working under the Cell-All program in the Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate, created a small stamp sized detector to be plugged in to an iPhone to “collect, process and transmit sensor data.” The sensor can detect and identify low concentrations of airborne ammonia, chlorine gas and methane.

[Via NASA]

Vonage announced today that “Apple approved its mobile application for iPhone and iPod Touch. Vonage is currently conducting a beta test and general availability will be announced at a later date.” This post will be updated as more information becomes available.

TomTom, a major player in the GPS market who’s software is the closest thing we have to an Apple produced GPS, has finally delivered on their Macworld promise and released TomTom for the iPhone. Starting with New Zealand, Australia, North America and Western Europe you can now order the software fro, the iTunes store. Keep in mind that this does not include the announced TomTom iPhone car kit, which is rumored to be bundled with the mapping software, that mounts and charges your iPhone 3G or 3GS while enhancing its GPS performance. performance, speaker, and microphone.

[via the iTunes Store]

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[Available from the iTunes App Store]