Twitter Fast Growing Beyond Its Messaging Roots

you can send tweets from your phone, your desktop and your browser -- that has potential to not only facilitate communication among humans, but even to make machines do our bidding.

Botanicalls, for example, sells a Twitter-enabled hardware kit that lets your neglected house plants alert you when they're thirsty.

The photo-sharing service TwitPic,

Tweetcube and Twittershare, which let users share larger media like MP3s and videos.

TrackThis, which you can use to get status updates on FedEx and UPS packages, and Tweetajob, which job seekers can use to get real-time updates about new job openings.

quitting smoking can use Qwitter

lose weight can turn to TweetWhatYouEat or TweetYourEats.

rigged up his washing machine to send him a tweet when his clothes are done.

software detects the movement and sends out a tweet.

Tweet-a-Watt, a gadget that plugs into your wall socket and connects to your wi-fi network.

turn his lights on and off remotely