Different Angle on Bootloader Unlock

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johnnyutah22

Senior Member
Jul 17, 2011
579
128
Tennessee
I was thinking about Asus's statement that they would release the unlock tool in response to the Facebook, social network, etc. campaign. Has anyone else considered that Asus had no intention of releasing the tool but instead was just calming the flames as quickly as possible so that they could sell off the inventory they had and prevent those who found this to be a deal breaker from returning their tabs. They give a February release date for the tool knowing that the majority of the tabs would be sold in January thereby getting past any 30 day return issues. They then bank on the fact that most would wait out the month for the unlock tool. This is pure speculation but given their history of issues with the release, gps, and wifi, I'm starting to wonder.
 

vakbrain

Senior Member
Dec 10, 2008
120
31
Next to nowhere
I don't understand why they would do such a thing. If you unlock the bootloader on your device, you void the warranty.

Asus won't have to support your device anymore and you would be able to play with roms (or even brick your TF201) all you want.

It's a win-win situation IMO.
 

Frooty

Senior Member
May 29, 2011
209
39
I doubt it. Lying to your customers seems like it would cause so much more negative press and make people not want to buy from you again. I know if they never released it, I personally wouldn't ever buy anything from Asus again as I don't want to support a company who lies to their customers.

Not only would they lose out on us buying future products, they would also lose out on us recommending their stuff to others. I personally have recommended the Prime to 2 other people and they bought it after that. They would be losing all that money too because if they did lie to us, then in the future I'd try hard to get people not to buy Asus products since I wouldn't want anyone to support a lying company.

But I believe in Asus and I think they'll release it soon.
 

johnnyutah22

Senior Member
Jul 17, 2011
579
128
Tennessee
I agree it wouldn't make good business sense, but their last two tablet releases have been absolute disasters. They made a device with what can only be described as a "signal shield" for a backing, throttled supply, released it before it was ready, and then decided to announce a newer version with the fix we should have had. They haven't done anything that's logical in the last 18 months. I'm just saying that I have my questions as to whether there is any intention of releasing an unlock tool anytime soon. I seriously hope I'm wrong.
 

loveableterrorepic4g

Senior Member
Jul 6, 2011
133
17
Aiken, SC
The TF101 was a disaster? Huh... *Races to phone* Quick! Call every major technology news outlet and blog, tell them they were wrong! Ha, I'm just kidding, but yeah, I understand the Prime has faults. I am ordering one very very soon and I look forward to it. I am not concerned with the WiFi issue as I have played with one in my house and at school and so far I have not a single complaint. I have returned the test unit to my friend today and I can't wait for mine to arrive!
 

Blairware

Senior Member
Nov 12, 2009
938
320
Wake Forest, NC
As was noted i the other thread today on WiFi and the Bootloader, releasing an unlocker is a legal nightmare. NOT because it voids warranties - that's a good thing for Asus, but because they have to "Present" it with the correct legalese. There are places where a warranty CANNOT BE VOIDED by things like user actions especially with an ASUS provided tool.

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1503267



Its just too complicated in today's litigation happy world to do obvious practical solutions without spending huge amounts of resources doing CYA... A shame, really.
 

Evo_Shift

Senior Member
Jan 17, 2011
2,348
482
Well I'm sure the story would be run on Web sites that they lied and would be pretty horrible press. I think it will come.
 

johnnyutah22

Senior Member
Jul 17, 2011
579
128
Tennessee
I think some are missing my point. We didn't set the February timeline, they did. If it's a legal nightmare then they shouldn't have said anything about a release time frame. I wasn't starting a "trash the prime" thread, I can live with its shortcomings if the bootloader is unlocked. And to the response about the original transformer, the release was a disaster and that's what I was talking about in the OP. All I know is that there's 11 days left in the month and there are people saying they know people on the inside that are disputing an unlock in February or possibly ever.
 

rand4ll

Senior Member
Jan 16, 2011
551
82
I think some are missing my point. We didn't set the February timeline, they did. If it's a legal nightmare then they shouldn't have said anything about a release time frame. I wasn't starting a "trash the prime" thread, I can live with its shortcomings if the bootloader is unlocked. And to the response about the original transformer, the release was a disaster and that's what I was talking about in the OP. All I know is that there's 11 days left in the month and there are people saying they know people on the inside that are disputing an unlock in February or possibly ever.

Yeah, February is just past half over, still plenty of time. I expect them to hold to their word on this personally and will not speculate or pass judgment until March 1
 

DrWowe

Senior Member
Mar 20, 2006
70
122
I doubt it. Lying to your customers seems like it would cause so much more negative press and make people not want to buy from you again.

Well Motorola does it all the time and ppl still buy their junk. They promised a bootloader unlocker for the various Droid phones in 2011 and then... silence. Don't ever trust a "promise" from a corporation they mean nothing.
 

3DSammy

Senior Member
May 5, 2011
1,252
617
Toronto
Asus has worked on the bootloader. A well known dev (Bumblebee) had posted on twitter a message congratulating Asus for taking the first steps in implementing the code necessary to unlock the bootloader. That code appears in the .13 firmware update.

Bumblebee is one of the devs that found rooting exploits for the TF and TFP so I trust what he says. He is often found in the #asus-transformer IRC channel.
 

dilligaf

Senior Member
Nov 2, 2005
102
12
St. Louis
I was thinking about Asus's statement that they would release the unlock tool in response to the Facebook, social network, etc. campaign. Has anyone else considered that Asus had no intention of releasing the tool but instead was just calming the flames as quickly as possible so that they could sell off the inventory they had and prevent those who found this to be a deal breaker from returning their tabs. They give a February release date for the tool knowing that the majority of the tabs would be sold in January thereby getting past any 30 day return issues. They then bank on the fact that most would wait out the month for the unlock tool. This is pure speculation but given their history of issues with the release, gps, and wifi, I'm starting to wonder.

Wow. What about the moon landing?

Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Tapatalk
 

prenedo

Senior Member
Mar 22, 2011
1,016
264
Google Pixel 6 Pro
Google Pixel 6
Asus has worked on the bootloader. A well known dev (Bumblebee) had posted on twitter a message congratulating Asus for taking the first steps in implementing the code necessary to unlock the bootloader. That code appears in the .13 firmware update.

Bumblebee is one of the devs that found rooting exploits for the TF and TFP so I trust what he says. He is often found in the #asus-transformer IRC channel.

Not trying to derail the thread, but I've been wondering... Does anyone know what devs have been working with the prime? I'm never on IRC and am not in 'the loop'. I guess I'm mainly wondering who to expect ROM's, themes and kernels from.
 

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    I don't understand why they would do such a thing. If you unlock the bootloader on your device, you void the warranty.

    Asus won't have to support your device anymore and you would be able to play with roms (or even brick your TF201) all you want.

    It's a win-win situation IMO.
    1
    That would be the worst mistake they ever made in their lives. I would personally call chuck norris.