Asus announced Tuesday that it will start rolling out the Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich" update to its Eee Pad Transformer Prime tablet on Jan. 12—and release a bootloader unlocking tool.
The Ice Cream Sandwich update will be delivered via a firmware over-the-air update starting next Thursday, Asus said on its Facebook page.
Another update, version 8.8.3.33, will also improve the focus of the camera, the fluidity of the touch experience, and the APK capabilities in Android Market, Asus said.
A complaint among the modding community, however, is the locked bootloader on the Transformer Prime. As one user in the XDA Developers forum noted, "Asus has Encrypted the bootloader on the prime with a 128 bit Encryption [which is] basically impossible to crack!" Tech enthusiasts want bootloader access for a variety of reasons, but the powerful quad-core, 1.4-GHz processor on the Transformer Prime makes unfettered access to this tablet all the more appealing.
Asus said today it opted to lock the bootloader "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," the company continued. "Also, based on our experience, users who choose to root their devices risk breaking the system completely."
That being said, Asus acknowledged that there is demand for an unlocked bootloader, so Asus is currently "developing an unlock tool for that community."
The company did not provide a timetable for when the unlocking tool will be made available, but noted that those who take advantage of it will void their warranty and lose access to Google's video rentals "because the device will be no longer protected by security mechanism."
For more, see PCMag's full review of the Asus Transformer Prime and the slideshow below.