American Megatrends adds Bluetooth Keyboard support to UEFI Firmware.

[asim1999]

Great news of people rocking SFF and living room PCs such as the Alienware Alpha

 

 

American Megatrends, Inc. (AMI), a global leader in BIOS, remote management tools, network data storage products and unique solutions based on the Linux and Android operating systems, is pleased to announce the addition of UEFI Bluetooth keyboard and pointing device support to its flagship Aptio V UEFI Firmware.

By adding Bluetooth support to Aptio V UEFI Firmware, users of small form factor, all-in-one and touch-enabled devices can now access the UEFI BIOS settings via a Bluetooth keyboard and pointing device to make BIOS customizations. This newly-added capability empowers end users to easily modify the BIOS settings of their systems in a number of ways and configure these products according to their personal preferences.

"The addition of Bluetooth keyboard support to Aptio V UEFI Firmware opens up a world of options for users of small form factor and touch-enabled devices, showing once again how AMI has its ear finely tuned to the present and future needs of our OEM customers and their end user consumers," commented Subramonian Shankar, President and CEO of American Megatrends.

Source: http://www.techpowerup.com/216106/american-megatrends-adds-uefi-bluetooth-keyboard-support-to-uefi-firmware.html

[Sauron]

Nice! Although I wonder how many people actually use bluetooth keyboards without the dongle

[linuxfan66]

Apple already had this...i will be interested to see the compatibility for this ...

[Pyromaniac225]

I honestly find this low level software stuff massively interesting lol

[Kamil]

This is really cool for those tiny stick-PCs that only have 1 USB port but require both a mouse and keyboard to install an OS. Pretty meh for most other reasons, but whatever. Certainly not a bad thing.

Or... would this not even help the OS install? I guess I'm not intimately familiar with which stages of operation this change will affect.

[TheProfosist]

This is going to be great for NY HTPC as I'm rocking a Bluetooth Lenovo ThinkPad Keyboard with TrackPoint on it.

[Robin88]

This is really cool for those tiny stick-PCs that only have 1 USB port but require both a mouse and keyboard to install an OS. Pretty meh for most other reasons, but whatever. Certainly not a bad thing.

Or... would this not even help the OS install? I guess I'm not intimately familiar with which stages of operation this change will affect.

It would enable UEFI setup and management using a bluetooth keyboard and mouse, making it so that you don't need physically wired devices to navigate the UEFI, but unless the drivers are included in the OS installer it wouldn't change anything when installing an OS.

Which sucks, but how do you include drivers for every single OS in use and for every single device available inside a EEPROM flash chip of less than 8MB? It just can't be done so the bluetooth stack included in the UEFI from AMI is about as generic as it gets while still allowing basic functionality for most devices, which as you would expect, stops those drivers from being used for an OS.

[ltguy]

Woot! I've been begging for this for years. Having to break out a USB keyboard everytime I need to access the bios or boot options is such a pain. Not to mention rf peripherals are for poor people.

[Lays]

@ProKoN @Jumper118

 

Now prokon can finally get into BIOS with that dam wireless keyboard he uses.

 

 

I was on skype with him one night all i heard was the delete key screaming "PLEASE HELP ME" as prokon smashed it into oblivion trying to get into bios

[escape093]

How long will it be before I can configure my BIOS in 3D using a steering wheel?

[TheProfosist]

How long will it be before I can configure my BIOS in 3D using a steering wheel?

probably be able to use a VR headset first

[Jumper118]

@ProKoN @Jumper118

 

Now prokon can finally get into BIOS with that dam wireless keyboard he uses.

 

 

I was on skype with him one night all i heard was the delete key screaming "PLEASE HELP ME" as prokon smashed it into oblivion trying to get into bios

lol, ps2 master race