Apple iPod Firmware 3.1 is out now and available for download, the major update to the core operating-system features some pretty exciting improvements like ability to manage your iPod Touch applications icons and screens via iTunes 9, the update is free for all iPhone and iPod Touch users except iPod Touch users currently having any firmware version older then 3.0 - they are required to pay an upgrade fee of $4.95 to get this latest OS upgrade and will get prompted by this screen when accessing iTunes.

Luckily, as previously done we can bypass this paid upgrade and get the latest iPhone OS 3.1 onto our devices using iTunes and iPod restore files as demonstrated next.

Finally, links to download iPod Touch and iPhone OS 3.1 are live and users can download them right now either automatically via iTunes or direct links provided at end of the post, the update is free for all iPhone users and iPod Touch users having firmware version 3.0 - it seems iPod touch users having older firmware version needs to pay $4.95 for getting iPod Touch OS 3.1.

The software upgrade fixes quite some issues and bugs and introduces new features as follows.

As expected, iPhone OS 3.0 Beta is now out in the wild and available for download on bittorrent sites and will soon make its way to popular file-hosting and sharing sites like Rapidshare, Megaupload and Mediafire, the BETA preview is meant for developers and need an iPhone 3G registered as a developer handset to work, which means you need to pay $99 to Apple for an Developer account to test this out, if you upgrade without the developer registered iPhone you will get locked on the emergency screen, as already confirmed by the iPhone Dev Team this latest release is jailbrekable on all devices and a custom IPSW is expected to be released soon which might get installed on non-developer registered iPhones.

If you have an older Apple iPod Touch (First Generation) having firmware version 1.x.x upgrading to the latest iPod Touch Firmware 2.x.x requires paying Apple a one time $9.95 fee through the iTunes Store, but here is simple trick to upgrade to the latest available firmware version without paying anything.

Follow the simple steps as follows and upgrade your Apple iPod Touch to the latest operating system without paying.