Pope sends first tweet, does so using iPad 2 (Yahoo! News)

The head of the Catholic Church also launched a new website from his tablet

When you think of the Catholic Church, you probably don't imagine the Pope tweeting about the latest church news to thousands of social network followers, but that's just what happened today. Taking to Twitter for the very first time, Pope Benedict XVI shot out a message announcing the debut of News.va, a church web portal that includes worldwide headlines and news from various church departments.

The Pope's tweet appeared on the Vatican news Twitter account, which will now provide links to articles and other features on the new site. Benedict XVI used an iPad 2 to not only send the tweet, but also to formally launch the site to the public. The new religious web destination is readable in both English and Italian, with more languages slated to be added at a later date.

This isn't the first time the Pope and social networking have crossed paths. Benedict XVI also gave online social sites his approval during a speech on the church's World Day of Social Communication in January. At the time, we doubt even he could have predicted he'd be launching a website and sending a tweet just 6 short months later, and from a touchscreen tablet no less.

News.va via AllTwitter

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Homemade hack lets your Roomba tweet about its day (Yahoo! News)

A 15-year-old from Utah who goes by the name of "Matchlighter" over on the Instructables forum decided that his Roomba needed to be more social. With a little bit of patience, ingenuity, and programming know-how, he taught his robotic pet how to tweet about its day.

To get his Roomba online, Matchlighter had to combine a few pieces of circuitry, a homemade cable, and a couple of custom software programs. He then mounted the circuitry on top of the cleaning bot and set it loose. You can find complete instructions over on the Instructables forum, if you care to build your own.

Right now, the tweets are pretty generic — consisting of things like "Hey! Put me down!" and "Ahh! Dock sweet dock." You can see the vacuum's tweets for yourself over on Roomba learn a new trick, and we doubt it will be the last.

Instructables via Hack A Day

Post by Jacob Bolm

[Image credit: Matchlighter]

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