Did you upgrade your iPod touch? I did. But I presumed it was optional. TUAW readers who have chosen not to upgrade report they're being hounded. By iTunes. They say that every time they connect their iPod to iTunes for syncing, they're getting hit with a "buy the upgrade" page that only has an OK button. Once clicked, it transports you to the iTunes page for buying the software. Is this happening to you? Are you feeling strong-armed into buying the upgrade? Let us know in the comments.

You probably already know that you can go directly to the iPod touch January Upgrade purchase page by following this link. What you might not know is that in order to purchase the iPod touch January upgrade you must be logged into your iTunes account and you must be running iTunes 7.6. You cannot make this purchase using earlier versions of the software.

If you ever restore your iPod and need to get back those upgrades, once again you need to use the magic of 7.6 plus be signed into the account with which you purchased it. I found out the hard way that your Mac doesn't automatically "remember" that you purchased it and that it belongs on your iPod touch.

I was one of the many people affected by the week-long "Error -2" outages at the iTunes store and had bought it with my secondary account. After restoring, my iPod just wouldn't reload the upgrade. I knew I had bought it and I knew it was available in my home folder in Library/iTunes/Mobile Applications. The problem was that I needed to sign into my secondary account (rarely used--except for doing posts like these) and then synchronize while signed in.

A few calls to Apple and a lot of annoyance later, I hope these tips may save you some grief. You can tell if your iPod touch has been "blessed" by checking its Summary tab in iTunes. Next to the Software Version, you should see the magic phrase "(with Software Upgrade)".