As for the former, Twitter offers API so at least there's an official way to do it. The catch is hourly API "units". A single account has several features (e.g. "write a new tweet" and "see who mentioned you") which share the same units. Two of these abilities are already supported via an e-mail interface (getting direct messages and getting "X just started folllowing you" notifications).
Last edited by lwc on Thu Feb 11, 2010 9:43 am, edited 1 time in total.
The idea of extending PP's functionality to tweets is intriguing, and the fact that there's an API doesn't hurt. It's something that I will definitely look into, when I have some free time.