Update: The update is now available directly via Palm's website. Notably, it is available both as a standard "connect to your desktop and install via USB" as well as the "Install via SD" options. Kudos, Palm and Verizon. Discuss this (now official) update in our forums. (Thanks to c5vettes for the tip!))

The saga of the 700p Maintenance Release just refuses to die. The latest iteration comes courtesy of this TreoCentral Forum thread, where a Verizon Store Rep confirmed that Verizon is sending out SD cards with the update to their shops. Verizon Treo 700p owners should be able to enter a Verizon store and ask for a technician to apply the update for them.

There has been no official announcement from either Palm or Verizon about the issue. The unusual nature of this release (instead of, say, simply posting it on their website) is likely related to the earlier issues that many users had applying the update to Sprint Treos - enough users had enough difficulties and bricked phones that Palm actually pulled the update for a time.

Currently, the Sprint update is only available via a download that you must save to an SD card - the other methods of updating the Treo direclty via USB were buggy at best and impossible at worst. Likely Verizon felt that this sort of update was too difficult for its customers and preferred to have their in-store technicians apply the patch.

TreoCentral users are reporting some of the benefits of the Sprint version of the MR but also, more troubling, some network connectivity issues. Several users are reporting that their 700ps are having difficulty maintaining a data connection. In fact, several users who have gone to a Verizon store to have the MR applied are recommending against doing it based on the issue.

We'll have more on this story, hopefully including an official statement from Palm, as it continues.