[Eee Pad Transformer Accessories] lacrossev:
In regards to cases, i'm not going to go through the accessories forum to find you links as i'm on tapatalk and its a pain, but the kind of case you are looking for are folio cases, of which i believe there are a few being talked about in the accessories forum. You should also know that of those folio cases none of them can be used while the transformer is docked, but if you don't intend on getting the dock then it doesn't matter. For non-folio cases, any 10 inch netbook case will fit with the tranformer docked. For sleeves, leather ipad cases will not fit as the transformer is longer but narrower than the ipad, neoprene sleeves may fit as they stretch and are usually not as rigid and form-fitted as leather or plastic cases.

Screen protector is indeed a matter of opinion, and here's mine for your consideration: some people like the feel of just the glass, and those folks are more likely to say that theres no NEED for a screen protector, and i would tend to agree with them on that point.

-"Dry apply" hard plastic film protectors tend to offer nothing different compared to the stock glass screen, at least not the crystal clear ones. The matte ones will give you more fingerprint resistence and a bit of glare reduction, but at the cost of screen clarity as the matte protectors are "frosted" and break up the light hitting the screen as well as coming out of the screen. The matte protectors also glide smooth under more conditions than their clear counterparts and the bare glass screen due to the texture.

-"Wet apply" soft film protectors will give you a bit of the glare reduction, and can also diffuse some of the light, but not to the same degree as matte protectors. Depending on how well you install it, they can look great or look like crap, but they seem to offer the most protection compared to crystal clear and matte hard films. The soft surface will stand up to more abuse than the hard plastic variants. I have used the skinomi screen protector on this and its not bad, though i personally ranked the feel of the thing dead last compared to a matte protector and the bare screen. It gripped my thumbs enough that after a 2 hour gun bros session my thumbs felt like i had been playing SNES instead of a flat screen with no bumps.

-The abuse threshold of both types of screen protectors are less than the gorilla glass specs, but the point is not that the screen protector is tougher than the screen, but rather if somehow you get those few grains of sand or hard silicate material near the screen, the protector will take the damage instead of the screen. Do you NEED it? probably not, but i would recommend one for a bit of insurance. I have personally suffered a damaged Zune HD, the circumstances under which i have yet to determine today, as it was in a pouch by itself in my pocket. Gorilla glass is tough, but it is neither scratch proof nor shatter proof, glass is glass.

Rooting: if the stock experience for you is nice and smooth, and you don't tend to mess with the inner workings of your devices, then i would say there is no need to root. Personally I am a flashaholic and like to play around with overclocking and themes. I also like to have backups of my OS in case i install some malware or completely bork my current setup somehow via 3rd party software. Other than that, rooting does not currently add any earthshattering features that you must have (maybe the wip reboot to recovery fuction, but if you're not rooted it won't apply anyway). That being said though, I'm not sure what progress has been or will be made on rooting from 3.1 (not sure what the holdup is) but if you intend on dabbling in rooting down the line, might as well downgrade (if your unit comes with 3.1 instead of 3.0), root it and go from there. You lose the ability to OTA, but the community is usually very fast on getting rooted versions of the OTA releases ready to flash soon after they are available.

Sorry for the long winded reply, hopefully it will be a fruitful read for you.