Mic/Line in?

My mid-2011 13.3" MBP has a headphone socket on the left side, just in front of the flash card slot. About an inch in front of that is a hole the same size as the aforementioned socket, but this one is blocked with an aluminum plug.

Does anyone know what that blanked-off socket is for? And whether it can be activated? It is a constant source of irritation to me that I cannot use a conventional headset for making Skype calls. The internal mic picks up too much extraneous noise to be usable.

That my friend... is the button for activating the battery indicator... if you push it, you'll see how much juice you have left in your battery.

My advice is to use a USB headset for Skype, since the socket is for both headphones and a line in, for midi-, and other devices.
In the sound section of System Preferences you can change the settings, to 'in' or 'out'...depending on how you want to use it.

SM

I had no idea that was a button... That said, pressing it doesn't seem to do anything - nothing appears on the screen.

So you're confirming that a conventional headset can't be used with the MBP? That for me is a distinct negative point. own three conventional headsets and no USB one.

There are a row of dots to the right of the button that light up when you push the button. This indicate the charge of the battery - nothing shows up on the screen.

Thanks, I've seen them. As far as I can see there are eight dots, and all are lit on my machine. Presumably that's good. But I see others quoting %ages, which presumably can't be taken from these eight dots...?

If they're all lit up, your battery is full (or near full). It's not a measure of quality but a measure of capacity.

I think that, whether your capacity is 100% or 75%, if your battery is 'fully' charged, or at least, it thinks it's fully charged, all 8 lights will still light up.
Therefor it doesn't indicate capacity, but more or less that it's full or not.

Or am I wrong in assuming this?

SM

True. My word choice was perhaps not the best there.

Didn't mean to set you straight though, I just wanted to be sure

SM

For a display like that, a Quick-Glance, it makes sense to be a charge meter, does it not? Battery health doesn't change from day to next day, why waste a hard wired display for that?