Turns out it's just a feature to let you transfer apps to a new phone when you replace your last. That's a nice little feature, don't get us wrong, but it's definitely not the same thing as allowing customers to share apps with friends and family. To quoth Microsoft:

As outlined in the terms of use for Windows Marketplace for Mobile, this ability is limited to phones owned by the person who purchased the application. Application sharing is not permitted. We believe people will find a high value in mobile applications they purchase through the Windows Marketplace, and we will also be offering a refund policy that will make it easier to shop for applications with confidence.

This is quite a bit of backpedaling from the original statement, in which Microsoft senior planner Daniel Bouie said, "We feel comfortable that using our LiveID system to help connect products to five devices is a great balance of the needs of both developers and end users." Sucks for us, but Microsoft has to avoid pissing off developers to get their Marketplace going. [Boy Genius Report]

You've got three ways to use E. The neatest right now is with a connector dongle. You hold it up to another connector, say at a tradeshow or a meeting, and you instantly exchange information. The downside is the person you're exchanging info needs to have one of these E dongles. The dongles sync and charge via USB and have 72 hours of battery life.

But, if you've got an iPhone, you can use the iPhone app and "flick" your business card over to the other person. Or if one of you doesn't have an iPhone, there's always just visiting the E website and punching in a unique code to swap info there.

We can imagine this will save on loads and loads of paper for business cards and writing down people's social networking info, which we're extremely excited about. You can go and sign up for a the trial today. [MyNameIsE]

Pogoplug is just a white brick with one USB port, one Ethernet port, and one power cord. You shove in any USB drive into the port and the data instantly gets accessible over the internet. The drives can be formatted in any of the following file systems: NTFS, FAT32, HFS+ (non-journaled) or EXT-2/EXT-3. You can even plug in a USB hub and dock multiple hard drives onto this thing. (No printers or other devices though.)

One of the main points Pogoplug seems to have focused on is getting the setup process automated to such a point that anyone with the ability to plug in things and click the "next" button on a web page can most likely get this working. That means your parents, your grandparents and your spouse (if you married for looks) can get an external USB drive onto the internet with little to no help from you.

Using Pogoplug is just as simple as setting it up. You, as the account owner, can hit up your Pogoplug.com share from any web browser and upload/download/view files from there. If you're on the same local network as your Pogoplug, it's smart enough to use your Wi-Fi/Ethernet to transfer files faster. There's also Mac and Windows software that loads the share as a network-mounted drive.

Other cool things you can do: Grab the iPhone app and stream MP3 files, view JPG files, open PDF/Doc files over Wi-Fi or 3G. If you load your entire music library you can stream your songs, one by one, off the built-in music player. Or, download files locally onto your iPhone. And, you can share anything (it's folder-based) on your drives to anyone else using their email as a unique login.

Everything about this is good. We streamed songs stutter-free over 3G onto our iPhones. We can keep important files on there so you can grab them on the go without having to punch through your NAT or set up a dynamic DNS service for your router. We can share large files with people without having to upload them first to a file-sharing site.

Here's the bottom line. It's insanely easy to use, there's no monthly fee, and it's only $100. Other solutions, like Windows Home Server, require you to set up an entirely separate computer. This just needs a USB drive and an elementary level of computer knowledge. The only downside is that you better hope Pogoplug remains in business, or your $100 file-sharing gadget just turned into a $100 projectile. [Pogoplug]

Incredibly easy to set up and use for Windows and Macs

Has an iPhone client

Easy to share files with others

Costs $100 and can only be used as long as the company remains in business

To get the levels back on another DS, just play it back over your computer's speakers and hold up the DS mic to it—the mic will grab the sound and the game will change it back into level code. If only Nintendo didn't make their online system so horrible to use, the developers wouldn't have to resort to archaic methods that are pretty much on par with tin cans and strings. [Kotaku]

This plan first launched into action when a co-worker of the nameless woman at the Apple Store noticed her computer online and notified the woman. She was then able to log into her computer and the rest is history. So the moral of the story is this: If you steal a MacBook, please be sure to cover the iSight with some tape. Otherwise, you could also be charged with a second degree felony. [Iohud via TUAW]

It's cool in a theoretical sense, but probably won't be very useful in a practical sense. Then again, instead of sharing a track, you could broadcast it to the gal sitting next to you and you can synchronize your air guitar with her air drums. You'd be the next White Stripes, but without, you know, the incestuous overtones. – Jason Chen

Stream any music to nearby Zunes [Zunerama via Crunchgear]

Technically, you could sync your Zune with any PC before, but gave you a pesky "guest" mode where you couldn't do as much as you could if it were the "main" Zune for that library. By installing this hack, you trick the software into thinking that every Zune is the Zune it's married to (someone needs to get on this hack for Catherine Zeta Jones), and thus get full syncing. – Jason Chen

End of Guest Syncing [Zuneboards via Lifehacker]

What's supposedly special about this is its wireless connectivity (like the Zune), online radio station integration (presumably streamed over Wi-Fi), socialization (again, Zune, or perhaps Pandora-like services), and music recommendation.

What's also interesting is that they say "traditional" USB connections will "play a minor role in getting content to your device." We wonder which one of those three gets stuck being heart. – Jason Chen

Music Vets Prep Next-Gen Player [Wired]

The FCC Filing we saw yesterday from Microsoft looks to be actually for the Zune, allowing the music phone to use 4G WiMax to communicate. Not only communicate, but to use VoIP over the fast 4G network.

It gets better.

With the new 4G network, one of the main complaints, that there are no users to share with becomes a thing of the past. Now, under WiMax, Microsoft is going to allow you to share songs with anybody, as long as they have a Zune Phone and the same WiMax plan.

So who's going to provide WiMax for Microsoft? Or more succinctly, who's this phone going to launch under? It looks like Sprint/Nextel, who announced last year that they were going to build a WiMax network.

Other details say that there's going to be an official announcmenet before March 17, with a FCC filing and a launch in May. May? That kind of accelerated timeline seems to be a little outrageous, but that's what the word on the street is now.

However, it's still early and details could change, but things are looking up for the Zune Phone after all. – Jason Chen

Microsoft to submit wireless device for FCC testing [Marketwatch via Crunchgear]

Ever since our good friend moved to the east coast, we've had a hard time watching episodes of 24 together thanks to the time difference. But if he could record the show on EST, I could download it from him (and everyone else on the east coast who recorded it) and be ready to watch it simultaneously with him. With IM or Skype, we can even get real time "oh my god Jack did NOT just do that!"

Of course, there are other uses like downloading shows that you forgot to record from other people, but we're looking forward to the simul-viewing. – Jason Chen

NDS Announces Peer-To-Peer [Yahoo via PVRWire]

Out of 50 songs tested by Zunerama, Universal and Sony artists were the most represented on the prohibited list. That's particularly frustrating when you recall that sweetheart deal that Universal Music Group and Microsoft dreamed up for the Zune, making everybody pay through the nose for the right to share Universal's music on the Zune.

The list of prohibited and accepted songs in this 50-song sample:

Universal Music Group
• Prohibited Zune Sharing: Gwen Stefani, Snow Patrol, Eminem, Blue October, JoJo, Jay-Z
• Accepted Zune Sharing: Nickelback, Nelly Furtado and Maria Carey

Sony Music
• Prohibited Zune Sharing: Beyonce, Weird Al Yankovic (not sure if song is from Sony) and Ciara
• Accepted Zune Sharing: Shakira, Wyclef Jean, The Fray, Christina Aguilera, John Mayer and Brad Paisley

Don't steal music, but look the other way when record companies won't even let you share it, even with gobs of DRM slathered on it. Great plan, guys. – Charlie White

Universal and Sony Don't Like Zune to Zune Sharing [ClicZune]

Wireless sharing - 58% of top songs are sharable? [Zunerama]

The MultiSwitch can act as a switch to control which PC sees which device at a certain time. In future models, SMSC may develop wireless technology as well, using WUSB so there are even less cables to manage.

The point? Well, it'd be nice to have access to printers and scanners with multiple PCs if you're running a small or home office. This way, you're not encumbered with a complicated networking setup, or need to make one PC the bottleneck for all USB-related activities. – Jason Chen

MultiSwitch - First USB Sharing Hub [TFOT]

1. Make sure that your Zune is connected and the Zune Software is running.

2. Navigate to My Computer and click on your Zune's name.

3. Open "Storage"

4. Find the file that contains the name of the user who transferred songs to you in the file name, and delete all records with that title.

5. Get the other party to do the same and you can now transfer the same songs again!

Zune Hack: Share your song again! [Fadeproofonline]

Microsoft signed a patent non-assertion agreement that grants Shared Media Licensing the rights to exploit its patent and any patents related to it without fear of legal repercussions. So if Microsoft should roll out a Zune compensated sharing program based on it, Shared Media Licensing and Weedshare already are in a unique position to leverage it for their own benefit.

This is pretty great news if you work at Weedshare and Shared Media Licensing, but since you don't, it's just confirmation that you'll get Marketplace points for song sharing soon. – Jason Chen

Me? I'm between jobs until the Zune incentive program rolls out [Good Morning Silicon Valley]