Does this mean that if I'm cloning the bowl of fruit I check the "create a stand alone object" box and if I am making a new bed frame and I want it to work with all the beddings I don't? Or what? Thanks for any clarification I can get.

In theory, yes :D

Ok. Thanks.

So SimPE automatically links cloned objects to recolors for the original objects now, so long as it's not created as a stand-alone object?

Hmm... that would only be desirable if you were using the same texture image for the clone as the one for the original.
When the UV mapping is different and the image is a different size it wouldn't work very well.

It would be awesome for hacked objects, though.

You mean the new item would look and have the same color options as the original but affect the game differently? Yeah that has possibilities.
Also if the new item can use the same texture image as the original it could be good to have all the color options too.

I mean like an espresso maker I cloned and hacked to make it give more energy, less fun, and cost more. It looks exactly the same as the original Ciao Time espresso machine in the game, and I would like it to link to all the recolors that the user has of that object. I've been able to link other recolors, but this one gives me a headache and I can't seem to do it.

I clone objects to hack them; I can't make new meshes at all yet. But cloned hacked objects without recolors aren't very fun. The procedure to link clones to the recolors of the original object isn't fun either. Lots of people who CAN mesh also link their new meshes to original recolors. If SimPE could do this automatically, and the only thing people who don't want to link to original recolors have to do is uncheck a box, that would be awesome.