Sadly, I bought the update.  Does it have a couple cool features?  Yeah...  I like the "shake to shuffle" feature.  The full keyboard when browsing the internet isn't bad.  I like being able to buy audiobooks and videos straight from my touch.  But was it worth 10$.  No, definitely not.  I would say it is better to wait until Apple comes to their senses and allows the update for free. 

I have run into something I don't like that I believe was from the update.  I can no longer change the volume when a song is playing.  The volume slider just isn't there.  I am still confused about this, as I can't see any difference in the main settings, or the settings for the music.  I hope it's just a personal issue, and not something that Apple decided to "update."  That would just be stupidity.

S&JT

Shame, they should refund you if they consider giving it for free, or at least give you iTunes credits.

Also about you volume problem, I found that others have similar issues and a partial solution is available.

As per a poster on the link:

"plug in the headphones, the volume slider will appear."

Link post number 4. Not the best solution but hope it helps.

Actually, I have noticed that plugging in either the headphones, or plugging it into a speaker set/base will cause the volume to appear, but my problem comes when trying to plug my touch into my car adapter.  The volume has to be at a certain level in order to be picked up by the adaptor, so it can get frustrating.

Glad to know I'm not going crazy though.

As for a credit, well, I just take it as a lesson learned. 

Reminds me of the time I chose to take one of the "Video Professor" free lessons as part of getting something else for free. Lesson well learned when i started getting billed for lessons I had not asked for that I had not received or started showing up in my mail afterwards. Lucky I was able to get most of my money back.

First a disclaimer: as a registered Apple iPhone Developer, I get the updates for free as long as I remain registered in the program ($100/year). In fact, I just downloaded the first 3.1 beta last week.

Do I think that it is worth $10? Absolutely! Now, not every new feature is for everyone, and some of the features you might not use right away (for example, peer to peer gaming), but $10 too much?

Ya gotta be kidding me, right!?

Software ain't cheap to develop, and there are quite a few new features (and many minor improvements) that make it worthwhile in my opinion.

In case anyone hasn't seen the full list:

http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/softwareupdate.html

 Those features would be much more impressive if one was constantly connected to the internet, (like the iPhone would be,) but when these updates only benefit the iPod Touch users when they are in a wi-fi zone, it's really not something that I can't live without. 

When you buy a $300+ product, you shouldn't have to pay extra money for "improvements" that should have been included anyway.  The note syncing, the "push notifications" (for app updates), and the safari improvements are things that should have been for free, because they are "fixes" for things that you paid for when you bought the iPod. 

The rest, mostly just frills, and I can see charging a little for those.  $10, though?  Mmmm... I personally don't think it was worth it.

But that is just my opinion.