At first, you might dismiss this problem since it only affects a small subset of users, but Balogh brings up an important question: "what should the developers do?" People who have purchased his application are now angry that it doesn't work, yet there's nothing he can do to help them.

A few weeks ago, Apple released their updated mobile OS, the iPhone OS 3.0, which included support for Push notifications among many other things. The two available NotifyMe applications were configured to use the new technology in both the free and paid versions. With these applications, users can receive push messages that remind them of items on their to-do list that need their attention.

Almost immediately after the company released the apps to the iTunes App Store, the support requests began rolling in. Balogh quickly realized there was a problem. Around 80% of the requests were from users who had installed NotifyMe on an unlocked phone. The users were complaining that the app either didn't work reliably or didn't work at all. Unfortunately, there was nothing Balogh or his co-developer Pavel Serbajlo could do to fix the situation.

Says Balogh, the problem involves the Push Notification service:

"...Every Push application has to request the unique token from the Apple's APNS servers to identify the device it's running on. Thanks to that token, APNS servers always know which device is yours. The token can be understood as an IP address -- the server has to know where to send the notification and for which application. APNS can also change your token regularly for higher reliability, so it's critical that the application requests the token again on every start (or when enabling the Push feature) to replace the old one if new token is forced by APNS.

On any unlocked iPhone, the application requesting the token is stuck. APNS does not provide any response at all and the application can either cancel the request completely by automatic timeout or let user wait with the progress bar forever. Either way, the user will never receive any Push message, because APNS has not provided the token."

In other words, if you're running an unlocked phone, you can forget about Push.

What Should Developers Do?

It may be easy for iPhone owners who haven't hacked their device to scoff at this issue: "Well, that's what you get for monkeying around with the firmware!" But the matter is not that simple.

Developers will have to determine how they're going to proceed now that they're aware of this limitation. Should they try to support the hacked phones? Should they just place a warning message in their app's description in the iTunes App Store? Should they ignore the problem (like Apple is doing)? Should they refund the money for the purchases?

Even worse, many of the unsatisfied customers are leaving poor, 1-star reviews when rating the application since they're unhappy it wasn't working for them. That seems incredibly unfair to the developer who has created a perfectly good application that works within the confines put forth by Apple. Yet now, new potential customers - including those content with their unmodified phones - will see these negative reviews and likely choose not to purchase, potentially overlooking great applications that would have worked just fine for them.

Apple's Involvement: Zip, Zero, Nada

Apple has every right to ignore this situation, we suppose, and that's exactly what they're doing. After all, the issue affects only a small community of hackers who have modified their phones. Or does it?

Does Apple have any responsibility to communicate this limitation to the developer community so they're not caught off-guard as Balogh was? After all, it's the developers who have to deal with the fallout - the overwhelming support requests, the unhappy customers, the bad reviews, etc.

At the very least, Apple could configure their APNS (push) servers to return an error message of some sort to let the developers know what caused the connection to fail, suggests Balogh. That way, the developers could at least plan to put a warning message in their app's description to cover themselves against these sorts of complaints.

Does that seem like a fair request? What do you think either Apple or the developer community should do regarding this issue?

We got a chance to test the app out for the last few weeks, and the app does indeed make great use of the iPhone's ability to receive push notifications. This finally makes third-party calendars on the iPhone useful, and reQall is one of the first calendar/to-do list apps to make really good use of this feature.

One of reQall's best features is that it can turn voice memos and free-style notes like "meeting with Marshall at 2pm on Friday" into formatted text and enter these as appointments into your reQall calendar. The voice transcriptions were generally spot-on.

The big difference with the old version of reQall is that you will now actually get an alert pushed to the phone that reminds you of that appointment you just dictated into your phone. Before, if you used the free version, you had to open up the app, and what's the chance of a user actually doing that?

In the pro version, reQall already sent out SMS alerts, but now, even the free version of the app can send out push notifications. We have seen quite a few IM apps that used push well, but this is the first time that we have encountered an application that makes really good use of push notifications, but isn't an IM app.

Correction: reQall just told us that the free version will not support push notifications.

Locations

One of the apps' coolest features (though restricted to the pro version) is that you can also assign locations to tasks. Sadly, though, because developers can't wake up apps remotely and get a user's location without the app running, the app still has to be running for this feature to work well. You can, however, bring up a map and see nearby places that also have reminders attached to them.

The pro version of ReQall also nicely integrates with your contacts, which allows you to easily make calls or send emails right from your list of reminders.

Pro Version

To get the most out of reQall, however, you really need a paid account. For $2.99 a month, which is not a major expense, you also get great features like easier voice memo recording by simply holding the phone to your ear (similar to how the Google Mobile app works on the iPhone), reminders by SMS, and access to a more fully-featured "memory jogger' function, which tries to remind you of items that you might just have forgotten otherwise. For professional users, the integration with Outlook is probably also another must-have feature that is only available in the pro version.

The exact differences are a bit complicated, but reQall provides its users with a nice table that lists all the differences.

Even the free version provides great features, and now that the app's pro version supports push notifications, it can finally live up to its promise.

BeeJive, for example, is a great IM app - and so are eBuddy (iTunes link) and IM+ with Push (iTunes link), two other push-enabled IM apps that were released in the last few days. These apps are intuitive, connect to most popular IM networks, and work just as advertised. But when it comes to push notifications, there are just too many little things that are holding these apps back.

By default, BeeJive, for example, will log you out of your account after just 20 minutes. So once you have finished a chat session, you will just be offline again and no new messages will be pushed to your phone. You can push this timeout limit up to 24 hours, but this setting is buried at the bottom of BeeJive's long list of options. The eBuddy IM app doesn't even have this option and just automatically logs you out after 30 minutes.

There are probably good technical reasons for this, but this behavior just isn't what we expected when we first heard about push notifications.

News Updates are Nice, but What About Customization?

While the AP Mobile app (iTunes link) does push out news updates regularly, it is also a bit of a letdown. There is, for example, no way to customize when you want to get alerts and which alerts you want to get. You can't just subscribe to tech news, for example, or updates about the latest celebrity deaths.

Still no Twitter Apps with Push

We are also still waiting for the first Twitter apps that support push (at least for replies and direct messages), better calendar apps (Remember Milk is the only one in the App Store so far, and it requires a pro account), apps that can push out alerts when an RSS feed updates or when new email arrives, or apps that are simply innovative and beyond our current exepctations.

Maybe Push Just Isn't the Solution?

While getting the current updates is nice, compared to having to open the app and see what is new, there is so much more that could be done with this technology. But for the time being, either Apple is holding back the most interesting apps, or developers just aren't able to use it in really innovative ideas.

We have talked to a number of companies that are producing geo-aware apps, for example. But because these developers aren't able to remotely wake up an app and pull in data about your current location, there really isn't much that they can do with push notifications at this point.

If only the phone could also run cron jobs, for example. Then that could start an application at regular intervals, in addition to push notifications, and developers could do so much more with this technology.

Of course, we are still in the early days of push on the iPhone, but so far, we have been quite disappointed with the current crop of apps. Hopefully, this will only be a stopgap solution anyway, and by the time the next generation of iPhones comes around, Apple will just allow apps to run in the background.

Good for Mobile Web Developers

Of course, these are benchmarks and don't necessarily correlate directly into a superior user experience, but it is good to see that even iPhone 3G users will see significant speed gains from the 3.0 release. This should give mobile developers quite a boost, as they can now develop and run more complex, cross-platform compatible web apps that won't be hindered by the mobile browser's performance, though the Android-powered G1 is still pretty slow according to Medialets and the Palm Pre sees the same performance as a 3G with the 3.0 OS.

For now, however, there are also still a few million iPhone 3G users who haven't updated their phones' operating system yet...

After waiting for a few days, the fabulous iPhone dev team at last provided us with a new set of jailbreaking tools. If you're ready to dive in, you can use this guide to get going. And unlike some of the other guides on the net, we'll share our personal experience and tips so you know just what you're getting into...and what to avoid.

If you're new to jailbreaking, you might be confused by the names being tossed around out there: PwnageTool? Redsn0w? ultrasn0w? What are these people talking about?! Simply put, they're all tools that either jailbreak (allow you to install 3rd-party applications) or unlock (make the phone work on other GSM-based cellular networks) your device.

For expert hackers wanting to create their own custom firmware, the Mac OS X-only PwnageTool is the right one for the job. But if all you care about is jailbreaking, then you'll probably want the new tool called "redsn0w." Although you can certainly jailbreak using the PwnageTool (LifeHacker shows you how), Windows users have no choice but to use redsn0w - it's the only option.

Finally, Ultrasn0w is the tool that unlocks the iPhone to allow it to work on other cellular networks. (In the U.S., that means T-Mobile.) Before you can unlock the phone, though, you have to jailbreak it. Then you can follow the simple instructions here to complete the unlock process.

Jailbreaking 101

METHOD 1: FOR NEW JAILBREAKERS

Backup

Now you're ready to jailbreak your phone. Before doing this, you should make sure you have a recent iPhone backup just in case something goes horribly wrong (not likely, but better safe than sorry). Your iPhone is automatically backed up when you sync with iTunes - unless you're the impatient type who always cancels that step of the syncing process. In any case, do one more sync before starting your jailbreak.

Get Redsn0w

The next step is to obtain the software known as redsn0w. If you're familiar with using bittorrent software, the fastest way to get the download is through the torrent file. The Mac torrent is here and the Windows torrent is here. If you're not comfortable torrenting files, then you can head over to one of the mirror sites hosting the zip file. The Dev Team blog lists them all here at the bottom of the post. Make sure you get the correct one for your PC - either the one for Mac or the one for Windows.

After downloading the file, unzip its contents to a folder.

Jailbreak!

1) With your iPhone connected to your computer, you can now launch the redsn0w.exe application.

For Windows 7 users, take note: for best results you'll want to run the app in "compatibility mode." Right-click on the file, go to Properties, then click the "Compatibility" tab. Check the "run this program in compatibility mode for:" checkbox and choose Windows XP (Service Pack 2) from the list provided. Click "OK" to close the window. You may also want to run redsn0w as an Administrator (right-click, then choose "run as Administrator"). I didn't do this, but some users have reported this as necessary to keep the app from crashing.

2) On the first screen of the redsn0w application, you're prompted to browse for your IPSW (iPhone firmware) file. A lot of online tutorials first provide you with this file and make you place it in some sort of easy-to-find folder. That seems like a lot of extra steps considering that the IPSW is already on your computer. Why not just browse to it?

For Windows users, the file will be located in:

Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\<user name>\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes\iPhone Software Updates

Windows Vista or Windows 7: C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\iTunes\iPhone Software Updates

For Mac users, the file will be here: ~/Library/iTunes/iPhone Software Updates/

If multiple IPSW files are listed, make sure you grab the one with the most recent timestamp.

3) On the following screen, you're prompted to select your options. "Install Cydia" is already checked for you (Cydia is an app you use to download jailbroken apps). The other box, "Icy" (another app like Cydia) is not.

Unfortunately, I had to learn the hard way that it's best to NOT install Icy at this point. For me, doing so led to a lot of issues including problems installing jailbroken apps, tons of error messages, and even crazy flashing screens. I had to start my jailbreak all over again because of checking Icy, so don't risk it! You can always install Icy later (see bottom of post).

4) For the next step, you're told to power off your device. Hold down the button on the top of the phone until "Slide to Power off" appears. Once the device is completely off, click "Next."

5) OK, now for the fun part. The steps on this screen appear quickly, so you'll need to be prepared to follow the instructions.

• The first step is to hold down the power button (the one at the top of the device) for the time specified. (The software will display a countdown next to each step.)

• Next, while still holding the power button down, you'll press the "Home" button (the round button at the bottom) for the time specified.

• While still holding the Home button down, release the power button for the time specified.

This will force your iPhone into a special mode which allows it to be jailbroken. Don't worry if you see the screen flash, it's all part of the process.

6) Assuming you did everything right, redsn0w will start the jailbreaking process. You'll see the status bar on the app moving and soon you'll be taken to a screen where you can finally click "Finish." However, your jailbreak isn't over yet.

Even though clicking "Finish" closes redsn0w, your jailbreak is likely still running at this point. You'll notice that on your iPhone's screen it says it's "downloading jailbreak data." You need to leave it alone until the phone reboots and returns you to the lock screen. Don't worry if this seems to be taking a while - it could take several minutes to finish - but it's not frozen, so let it do its thing.

FINISH!

After the phone reboots, you can use it as usual, except now you'll have a new app on your springboard for "Cydia" where you can find a treasure trove of jailbroken applications to install.

That's it! Congratulations, you're a jailbreaker!

Update Cydida, Install Icy from Cydia

For extra points, you'll want to now install the other app called "Icy," which, like Cydia, helps you locate apps for jailbroken phones. To do so, you'll first have to launch Cydia and update it. After telling Cydia what kind of user you are (I'm just a plain ol' end user - you probably are too), you'll be prompted to update the app. Choose "Upgrade Essential" and let Cydia download its updates.

When it's finished, return to the app and select "Manage" from the set of buttons at the bottom of the screen. Tap "Sources," "Edit," then "Add." Type in http://apt.ripdev.com and hit "Add Source" when done. Tap the "done" button and exit out of the "Manage" section.

Now, using the Search button, search for "Icy." A lot of results come up, but the one you want is simply called "Icy," nothing else. Install this application and you'll now have a second app on your screen for finding jailbroken programs. (Note: Icy replaces "Installer," the prior Cydia alternative).

METHOD 2: FOR KEEPING YOUR OLD JAILBREAK

Unfortunately, I didn't discover these steps until after I jailbroke my phone, so I was left re-installing all my apps. I can't verify these steps work, but if you've previously jailbroken your phone and want to keep it that way, it's certainly worth trying.

Basically, instead of "downloading and installing" the 3.0 firmware from iTunes, you just download it to your computer. Then you choose "Restore" in iTunes to set your device back to factory settings. (Remember to have a recent backup first!)

Next, close iTunes and run redsn0w as described above. Once the jailbreak is complete, re-open iTunes and choose "Restore from Backup." In theory, this should keep your jailbreak.

If those steps are accurate (or need tweaking), let me know and I'll update the post.

Either way you jailbreak, the end result is an iPhone that can do all sorts of new tricks like record video and upload it to YouTube, let you install custom themes, icon sets, and even different battery indicators, and, of course, tweak away at system preferences like nobody's business. Some people don't see the point of jailbreaking, but it's hard for true jailbreakers to imagine their phones without it. Maybe now, you'll feel that way too!

We got a chance to test both apps and both work just as advertised. For the AIM app, for example, the delay between sending a message and a notification popping up on our phone was usually under five seconds and sometimes almost instantaneous. Push, by the way, is enabled both for the free AIM app, which features ads, and the $2.99 paid version which is ad-free. One problem we noticed, though (and the same goes for the Associated Press news app with push), was that clicking on 'view' in a pop-up notification only open the app, but didn't take us to the actual message. We almost wonder if this is something Apple's API doesn't support, as this seems to be common among the push apps we have seen so far.

BeejiveIM is a bit pricey at $9.99, and the price might go up to $15.99 later, so if you really want this app, which supports, Windows Live, AOL, Yahoo, Google Talk, Facebook, MySpace, ICQ, and the Jabber protocol, not is probably the time to buy it. The one IM protocol this app misses support for Skype chats, though we are hoping for IM+ with support for push notifications (iTunes link to the free version) to be allowed into the store in the next few days.

Finally!

We are very excited to see the first new batch of push notifications in the App Store, though we would still like Apple to make a few changes to the way the iPhone handles these messages (including the ability to set a 'quiet time' during which notification are ignored). However, as long as Apple doesn't allow applications to run in the background, push notifications are the best alternatives and we are looking forward to seeing what developers will do with this new feature.

So what's the reason for the delay? One iPhone application developer has his suspicions. He's discovered what appears to be an issue with Apple's Feedback service and is now questioning if this, and not the backlog of new app approvals, is what's causing the holdup.

Reports Dominik Balogh, developer of the soon to be push-enabled app NotifyMe, there might be problems in the Feedback service provided by Apple's APNS (aka "Push") servers. In a posting on the Macrumors forum, he wrote,

Until now, we have noticed only minor glitches in Feedback service running on APNS servers. These servers deliver Push messages to user's iPhone or iPod touch.

Feedback service alone is periodically checking whether target iPhone application(s) are still reachable. If the Feedback service finds out that the target Push application (special unique token used) is already uninstalled or the Push messages are not possible to deliver repeatedly for whichever reason, it automatically lists the token of that unique user as "invalid". Developer's servers has to disable that user's account temporarily to prevent unwanted resource hogging and wasted traffic on both sides. The token is marked as "valid" back again if the same user is interacting with affected Push application some time later (or new clean token is generated).

The main purpose is clear. 1) No trash 2) saved resources 3) saved processing power 4) saved traffic -- in case users are not reachable. Could be as many as hundreds of thousands.

This Feedback service is currently not responding to our servers in about 4% of cases according to our own logs. Everything else's running fine.

Quote:

2009-06-20 17:32:08 - Feedback check...
2009-06-20 18:32:10 - Feedback check...
2009-06-20 19:32:15 - Feedback check...
2009-06-20 20:32:16 - Authentication failed because the remote party has closed the transport stream.
2009-06-20 20:32:16 - Feedback check...
2009-06-20 21:32:18 - Feedback check...

If, indeed, there was an issue with the Feedback service, it makes sense that Apple would hold back on approving what will surely be some of the most-used applications taking advantage of the new OS's push capabilities. These apps will generate a huge load of traffic and processing power, so it's critical that Apple's service is working without a glitch before the updates are released.

Apple to Developers: Sorry for the Delay

Incidentally, Balogh recently received an email from Apple's iPhone Developer Program, apologizing for the delay. It reads:

Your application, NotifyMe 1.0, is requiring unexpected additional time for review. We apologize for the delay, and will update you with further status as soon as we are able.

Thank you for your patience.
Regards,
iPhone Developer Program
****************************

A couple of other developers are reporting receiving the same email. 

A Second Opinion: 50,000 Apps to Approve = Major Backlog

Of course, suspicions aside, it's also just as possible that Apple is simply dealing with an extremely large backlog of apps in need of approval. With 50,000 applications now in their ecosystem and a new OS to support, the number of app updates waiting for the green light is probably bigger than ever before. And Apple's never been too speedy when it comes to their mysterious approval process.

While this theory makes sense, we have to wonder: if Apple was experiencing glitches with their Push Service - glitches we've seen in the past with MobileMe, for example - would they ever admit it? It's doubtful. Unless someone from Apple HQ itself decided to leak what's really going on with the approval delays, we would probably never know...we could only suspect.

After thinking about how Apple has implemented notifications, however, we think that while this is a great feature, there are a couple of areas where we would like to see some changes.

For one, there doesn't seem to be an option to review which notifications have come in after dismissing them. So if you mistakenly close a notification instead of clicking on 'View,' there is no way to go back to see where the message came from. It would be nice if Apple could include a list of incoming push notifications somewhere - maybe even under the generically named 'Messages' icon where the SMS features now reside.

No Quiet Time

Another issue that doesn't seem so pressing on a Thursday morning, but might become a problem by Thursday night, is that there is no way to set a 'quiet time' for push notifications. If you only want notifications during the day, but not at night, you will have to turn off notifications completely in settings. Sure, you could just turn off all sounds and maybe rely solely on badges, so you won't be startled by a breaking news alert from the AP at 3am, but that would defeat the purpose.

We Still Love Push

We assume that developers might be able to add some of these features themselves, but it would have been nice if Apple had included this itself. These gripes aside, though, we think that push is going to be a major game changer and can't wait for more apps to support it (especially more Twitter clients and IM apps).

Note: We will look at Apple's push notifications from a developer's perspective later today.

Push Enabled Apps

If you are looking for a list of push enabled apps, by the way, the good people at AppAdvice feature a nice list of currently available apps, as well as some that should hit the App Store soon.

In this post, we will have a closer look at the updates that are coming to the iPhone tomorrow, with a special focus on some of the features that Apple hasn't talked about much yet.

Search Everywhere

In everyday use, maybe the most important update to iPhone 3.0 is that search is now built-in everywhere. The Spotlight feature, which you activate by scrolling to the left of your first home screen, lets you search for contacts, songs, apps, email, etc. But maybe even more importantly, the iPod and Mail apps now also feature search, which, especially in the Mail app was sorely missed in earlier incarnations of the OS. If you get your email from an IMAP server, you can also continue your searches on the server. In Mail, you can search by sender, recipient, subject, and inside emails as well.

Overall, these new search features didn't just work very well, but results also appear very quickly.

Cut, Copy, and Paste

We already knew how cut, copy, and paste would work in iPhone 3.0, and there are few surprises in the finalized version of this much anticipated new feature. You just click and hold a word you want to copy, and the copy dialog immidiately appears. One nice aspect of this is that once you get beyond a paragraph, the feature will switch into paragraph mode, where you can select complete paragraphs instead of having to go word-by-word.

Of course, nothing is quite perfect, and there are some issues with copy and paste on the iPhone. We often inadvertently activated this feature by lingering just a little bit too long before moving our fingers up or down while scrolling through a web page.

One new feature related to copy and paste that we noticed was that in Safari, you now get a new menu when you click and hold a link for a second or two. Safari now gives you a choice to open the link in a new tab/page, or you can copy the location of the link (handy if you want to send somebody a link to a web site, for example).

iPod: Slow Scrubbing, Shake to Shuffle, Faster Podcast Playback

The iPhone app got a few interesting updates besides search. In earlier versions, it was pretty hard to quickly get to a particular spot in an audio file, as the controls were rather imprecise. In this new version, Apple has changed the behavior of this feature. As you move your finger further down from the time line, the app will go into 'half-speed,' 'quarter-speed,' and 'fine scrubbing' mode.

Buy and Download Movies, TV Shows, Audiobooks

Until now, iPhone users had to rely on iTunes on their desktops to buy and download anything but single songs. Given that the App Store always allowed users to download install apps directly from the phone, which can often be quite large, this seemed increasingly antiquated. Now, you can also buy and download movies, TV shows, music videos, and audiobooks directly over the air. On cell networks, however, the same 10MB file limit that applies to podcasts and apps also applies here.

Share More than One Photo at a Time

Apple stressed the fact that you can now email more than one photo during it's original 3.0 announcement, but didn't really focus on it during the WWDC keynote. We think this is a really handy (and long overdue) feature.

Sadly, though, Apple still restricts the number of photos you can directly share from the Photo app to 5, though you can actually copy and paste as many photos as you wish into an email, which makes this restriction a bit odd.

Safari

Safari on iPhone 3.0 does feel a bit faster, but it is hard to say how much of this is simply a placebo effect. We did notice, though, that the browser did not freeze up for extensive periods while loading large and complicated sites anymore.

While Apple surely made a lot of changes under the hood, we did not notice any new features or updates to the app's look and feel (besides copy and paste, and the ability to copy a URL and force Safari to open up a new page when keeping a link pressed for a few seconds) .

Voice Memos

The Voice Memos app works as advertised. You press a button and the app records whatever reaches the microphone. We are not quite sure why Apple felt the need to create its own voice recorder, given that there are already plenty in the App Store. Besides the fact that you can easily attach your memos to email, one thing that does make Voice Memos stand out is its ability to run in the background, so that you can look at an email or web site while recording a memo, for example (a red bar at the top of the screen will remind you that you are still recording).

Find My iPhone/Remote Wipe

At Apple's WWDC, this feature really impressed the crowd, and in our tests, it turned out to work extremely well, though it's a shame that you need a MobileMe account to really use it.

Find My iPhone allows you to ping your phone from your online MobileMe account. If you lost your phone, for example, Find My iPhone will show a map with your phone's current location. You can also send a message to your phone and have it play a sound for up to two minutes (great when you know your phone is at home, but you can't find it anyway).

If you can't retrieve your phone, Find My iPhone will also allow you to perform a remote wipe, which will delete all the data on the phone, so your email won't fall into the wrong hands.

Other Updates: It's all About the Apps

Besides the updates we looked at in more detail above, Apple has obviously given developers the ability to hook into a large number of new APIs that, among other things, allow the phone to talk to third-party hardware devices or to connect phones over WiFi and Bluetooth to play games, and in app purchases, for example. Some of the new features, like Voice Control and the new compass will only be available on the new iPhone 3GS.

In this post, we only focused on the most interesting new features in the OS and Apple's own apps. We will have a closer look at the new features that developers can now make use of once we get access to the first apps that are able to send out push notifications, for example.

The update will be available for download tomorrow, June 17. IPhone users, including those who purchased the first, non-3G generation of the device will be able to download it for free. IPod touch users will have to pay $9.95.

If you really, really can't wait until tomorrow, you can also do what we did and just download the release that Apple gave to developers, after WWDC, from your favorite torrent site. Or, you can head over here and follow these instructions to download and install the update directly from Apple's servers. Of course, you do so at your own risk.