Dell on Friday made attempts to clarify the lack of stereo input into its laptops, hoping to dispel rumors that the RIAA forced it into a particular position. Dell blogger Lionel Menchaca reveals that the decision to exclude stereo audio was due to Windows Vista's tentative system requirements early on in its launch. As a result of customer complaints, Dell is re-instating stereo audio input into future laptop, beginning with the Studio 15 and Studio 17 models.

While the news is a boon to future users, existing Dell owners will not have recourse, since the decision was made to leave stereo input out at the hardware level, and can not be remedied by a patch or firmware upgrade.

Dell says that stereo input functionality will work on both Windows XP and Windows Vista on machines with the proper hardware.