Software: FunctionFlip

FunctionFlip for OS X does one thing and it does it well: it allows you to “flip” your function keys on a MacBook or MacBook Pro keyboard, so the default behavior becomes the actual Fx key effect, as opposed to the enhanced functions [play/pause, volume, brightness control, etc] that those keyboards normally have.

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You can “flip” all of the keys in OS X preferences, of course, but this free Preference Pane allows you to pick and choose keys: for example, I find the “Previous Track” and “Next Track” functionality of the keyboard to be undesirable, so I simply flipped them back to the normal Function keys.