[ddagradi]

The Macbook Air does not have a combo port (currently). Just a headphone jack. I used dedicated to mean "includes specific hardware to handle this use case". Sorry for the ambiguity.

The consumer product line continues to have fewer fine-grained controls than Pro products, so nothing has really changed here.

[r00fus]

Not sure if you're correct - look at the specs page [1]... it does support the Apple headset with combo microphone/headphones port.

[1] http://www.apple.com/macbookair/specs.html

[ddagradi]

Interesting! The language on the MBP specs says "Combined headphone/line in", whereas the MBA specs say "Headphone port". But you are correct: my headphones register as an audio input on the Macbook Air. I wonder if it's a very specific exception, or just an intentionially undisclosed feature (why?).

[mikeash]

I would read "combined headphone/line in" as meaning that it would do full stereo line-level audio if you provided it. The MBA's port only works with four-pin cell phone-style headsets, as far as I know, which do mono over an extra pin while still providing stereo output.