What? I think (and hope!) they use checksums to verify the downloaded data is "good".

This doesn't help the people who have issues. Even if all ps-fans here write "no issues" here doesn't mean there are none.

You people are scaring the sh*t out of me.. Someone hold me and we together push the update button

So that's what the meant by "improved stability". Can't get more stable than dead.

I always laugh if I read "improved stability". How behaves an unstable console?!

I tried updating out of curiosity. I'm on firmware 4.41. It said I have the latest version and there's no need to update. So they either haven't distributed it for Japan yet, or they pulled the update.

Holy crap you saved my PS. Mine was set to auto update in half an hour and I barely managed to turn auto update off in time.

Auto Update only downloads firmwares it does not install them, as you have to agree the terms and conditions before installing.

Every firmware update bricks some, because during the process there always are some that turn off their console or lose electricity and so on.

This one might really have a problem though, as my PS3 doesn't find a new update and still is at 4.41, so Sony might have pulled it for now to investigate the issue. Still, people that are stuck on the wave-thingie can still boot into the repair console to reinstall 4.45 or install a newer firmware once Sony releases one.