Hey guys, I just recently bought a TF300 over the Nexus 7 and I do regret (that thing has big issues); I bought the Asus TF300 over it because of storage size as well as USB friendly access --I'm planning to sell it off or get a refund on it to get a Nexus 7 instead.

I hope you guys can point a newbie to the right places:

I read that I'll have to ROOT the Nexus 7 to get USB OTG access. Is it safe and will it void the warranty?
Can the rooted Nexus 7 power up external hard disks (500GB) for USB OTG usage?

Thanks in advance!