It certainly wasn’t good news to hear that the Transformer Prime’s bootloader was locked and encrypted, which blocks the ability to load custom ROMs onto the quad-core tablet. Well, it may not be long until said bootloader will be able to be unlocked through an Asus provided tool.
When people got word that the bootloader would be locked on the Transformer Prime, they took to Facebook to express their anger. In almost no time at all, Asus Taiwan and Asus USA responded.
Below is the statement from Asus US:
Regarding the bootloader, the reason we chose to lock it is due to content providers’ requirement for DRM client devices to be as secure as possible. ASUS supports Google DRM in order to provide users with a high quality video rental experience. Also, based on our experience, users who choose to root their devices risk breaking the system completely. However, we know there is demand in the modding community to have an unlocked bootloader. Therefore, ASUS is developing an unlock tool for that community. Please do note that if you choose to unlock your device, the ASUS warranty will be void, and Google video rental will also be unavailable because the device will be no longer protected by security mechanism.
Nothing new here. We’ve seen Google leaving out rooted users from its movie rental service since it was introduced.
Asus also dropped a few nuggets of information concerning the Ice Cream Sandwich update:
ASUS has been working hard to make the highly anticipated Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich available on the Transformer Prime, and today, we have good news for you. Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich FOTA worldwide update for the Transformer Prime will start from Jan 12th, 2012. Thank you for your patience and support through this process.
So it looks like Ice Cream Sandwich will begin to roll out on January 12th, which is during CES. So while we won’t be able to have the to soak up ICS in tablet form as much as we’d like, it’ll certainly be a treat to come back to.
Which are you more excited for? The ability to load custom ROMs onto the Transformer Prime or the Ice Cream Sandwich update?
[Via: Droid-Life, Facebook]