File sharers were the first to rush in. The photo-sharing service TwitPic, one of the oldest Twitter mashups, lets users send pictures to their followers by storing a photo on its servers, then passing the link around on Twitter. Now there are newer apps like Tweetcube and Twittershare, which let users share larger media like MP3s and videos.

Twitter’s limited format of short, text-based announcements are a natural match for sites like 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.

Anyone who needs help quitting smoking can use Qwitter to monitor their progress. Those looking to lose weight can turn to TweetWhatYouEat or TweetYourEats.

Hardware hackers have put a new spin on the Twitter mashup — as it turns out, just about anything that can be plugged into the internet is capable of talking to Twitter.

Programmer Ryan Rose rigged up his washing machine to send him a tweet when his clothes are done. He just follows his machine’s twitter account (it’s PiMPY3WASH) and he knows when to go downstairs and move his undies to the dryer.

Linux hacker Shantanu Goel set up a video camera and some motion-sensing software on a PC connected to the internet. If anyone breaks into his house or goes snooping through his room, the software detects the movement and sends out a tweet.

Tech-savvy environmentalists can install Tweet-a-Watt, a gadget that plugs into your wall socket and connects to your wi-fi network. Once a day, the pocket-sized device broadcasts stats of your daily energy usage to Twitter.

Whether that sort of transparency results in embarrassment or bragging rights can be determined by a system like the one created by Justin Wickett. The Duke University student wired up his home so he could turn his lights on and off remotely, just by sending a text message to Twitter from his mobile phone.

Twitter Fast Growing Beyond Its Messaging Roots | Epicenter from Wired.com.

Sometime soon, Twitter is expected to unveil its plan to make money. Based on comments made by Twitter co-founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams recently, it seems likely that plan will involve charging companies for accounts with special privileges.

In New York Magazine this week, both Stone and Williams said that charging companies for brand verification is something that the company was looking into. This makes a lot of sense, especially given the rise of fake profiles, like the one that was recently taken down for the Dalai Lama. They note that a paid corporate account could have features like a prompt when a new user joins a company’s feed.

Then today, Stone made similar comments to the UK-based Marketing Magazine. “We are noticing more companies using Twitter and individuals following them. We can identify ways to make this experience even more valuable and charge for commercial accounts,” Stone told the publication. He went on to note that other ideas of charging companies to use Twitter to market products and/or provide customer service were on the table.

The latter part is something which companies like Zappos and Comcast have been doing for a while. They have employees that scan Twitter (something much easier now with Twitter Search) to see who is saying something about their company. If it’s something negative, or there is some kind of problem mentioned, these Zappos or Comcast Twitter users send messages to the user having the problem. I’ve experience this first hand with Comcast’s Twitter rep, Frank Eliason, who tweets from the account ComcastCares.

Marketing products on Twitter is a potentially more interesting idea from a revenue perspective. Late last year, Dell reported that it had made over $1 million in revenue thanks to Twitter. More recently, Dell announced that it would start offering deals exclusively to users who follow its accounts on Twitter. With Dell using Twitter to spur sales and clearly making money off of it, it makes sense that Twitter should be getting some of that. But the question of how much, is a tricky one.

“If it becomes complicated and costly, our instinct would be to move elsewhere,” Bob Pearson, vice-president of communities and conversations at Dell told Marketing Magazine. Other companies Marketing Magazine asked about the idea of Twitter charging businesses to market on its service, said similar things.

This idea of charging for corporate accounts, has been around since at least October, when CNET reported it was hearing whispers about such a plan. Since then, we’ve heard the exact same thing from a few other sources. In November, Williams started to float that idea out there publicly. But now, with talk about this plan clearly picking up, I think it’s a safe bet that it’s coming sooner rather than later.

Twitter has raised over $20 million in funding. Recent reports suggest that it’s looking for another $20 or so million, which could push its valuation close to a quarter of a billion dollars.

Twitter starts to talk up the charging companies plan » VentureBeat.

Microsoft is gearing up to take on rival Apple in the smartphone market.

The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Microsoft is getting ready to launch an online marketplace akin to Apple’s App Store. Microsoft is also readying a more sophisticated version of its mobile operating system called Windows Mobile 6.5, the Journal reported.

Smartphones are sophisticated mobile phones that offer users access to the Web and e-mail, as well as, provide phone calling and all kinds of other messaging options. This category of device is the hottest thing going in the mobile market and is seen as the biggest growth engine for mobile devices over the next few years.

Microsoft, which only makes the operating software for these devices, holds third place in terms of worldwide market share, according to research firm IDC. Symbian, which powers Nokia’s smartphones, is by far the leader, followed by Research In Motion with its BlackBerry devices. Even though Apple seems to be the most talked about smartphone on the market these days, it’s only in fifth place in terms of overall market share for 2008, IDC said.

But Apple is quickly gobbling up market share and has become a serious threat to Microsoft and every other company competing in the smartphone market. With the release of the iPhone 3G last summer, Apple has tripled its market share from 3 percent in 2007 to 9 percent in 2008, according to IDC. Meanwhile, Microsoft only grew from 11 percent market share in 2007 to 12.3 percent in 2008.

Microsoft is facing several challenges as it tries to catch Apple’s growth rate. For one, the company’s business model is based primarily on licensing software to hardware vendors. While this business model worked fine just a couple of years ago, it’s difficult to justify now given that device makers can get free software from Symbian, Google Android, and Linux.

The second problem that Microsoft faces is that the company has been almost exclusively focused on business customers. Over the past year, smartphone users have gravitated toward more consumer applications. In addition, to their work e-mail, they want multimedia functionality and social-networking applications on their phones.

“Microsoft is in a really tough spot,” said Ryan Reith, an analyst with IDC. “It has to change its value proposition. And a big part of that is refreshing its user interface and making the device more consumer-friendly.”

Reith believes this is why it’s critical for Microsoft to develop an application marketplace that can compete with Apple’s App Store. The App Store went live last summer and offers thousands of applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch music player. The store has been very successful with users downloading thousands of free and fee-based applications.

Microsoft already has a developer community creating applications for Windows Mobile devices. But the problem is that many of these applications have been geared toward business users. And there is not a single destination that makes it easy for users to discover and download different applications.

“Clearly smartphones are not just for business users anymore,” Reith said. “Microsoft needs to work with the developer community to get more consumer applications out there.”

Microsoft’s executives have gotten the message that consumer functionality is hot. And Andy Lees, head of Microsoft’s mobile business unit, told the Journal that the company is about to put more emphasis on multimedia and other consumer functions like music and photos.

Microsoft is expected to unveil its new offerings next week at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona, Spain. Chief Executive Steve Ballmer will be delivering a keynote speech there on February 16. I will be there next week covering the news from the show, as will my CNET Reviews colleagues Bonnie Cha and Kent German.

But even with these enhancements, Microsoft has a tough road ahead of it. Competition in the smartphone market is increasing. And several competitors, including Android and RIM, are launching their own version of an application store.

Read Further…

Microsoft readies smartphone assault on Apple | Wireless – CNET News.

Facebook Opens Up (a Little) With New Developer Tools | Epicenter from Wired.com.