Does getting out of the sandbox only happen when G does their 90 day update, or can it happen anytime?
I'd like to know as well. Im pretty sure Im still sandboxed and my site's about 6 months old. I was slowly starting to move up on some uncompetitive keywords then right after Jagger I dropped off of all except my domain name.
The way I see the sand box, it's not really a box but a sieve and your site is just one of the grains of sand in it. As it gets continuously shaken grains of sand fall out at random and intermix with all the grains of sand released before them. Then, every once in a while, agut comes along with a big shovel, scoops up some random sand and throws it back into the sieve.