New MacBook functionality for old MacBook?

July 15, 2008 3:49 PM

I have the first generation intel MacBook with this keyboard. Some of the F keys have special functions like volume up/down, and screen dimmer controls. The newer keyboard has additional functions like play/pause, next song, previous song, etc. I want to add the functionality of the new keyboard buttons to my old MacBook's keyboard. Is there software that will do this? Is there some other solution? Thanks!
posted by alitorbati to computers & internet (6 comments total)

Check out Synergy.

I have a new Mac keyboard with the built in functions, but I use Synergy instead because I prefer it.
posted by 2oh1 at 4:03 PM on July 15

I use quicksilver for this; mapping command+down to play/pause, command+left/right to skip forward/back, and command+up brings up a library search so I can access any song in two or three keystrokes.
posted by lukeo05 at 5:09 PM on July 15 [1 favorite]

Have you tried holding down FN and hitting those keys? I have the keys with the playback controls, and I have to use FN to access the standard expose functions. Might work for you.
posted by wongcorgi at 5:36 PM on July 15

I use CoverSutra lets you add hotkeys for next/play/pause/search/etc

If you want a free solution, check out SizzlingKeys. I was using that before I bought CoverSutra.

I'm sure there are many scripting solutions that will do this too, but the above suggestions work "out of the box" without any coding.
posted by meta_eli at 7:15 PM on July 15

Check System preferences- Keyboard & Mouse under "Keyboard"...
There's an option to use all F1, F2, etc keys as standard Function keys. I'm not sure this is what you're looking for, because I'm running a brand new macbook pro running 10.5. my sister's macbook running 10.4 is similar to your first picture, though, and works just fine
Hope this is helpful. Sorry for the clutter if it's not
posted by photomusic86 at 7:17 PM on July 15

Thanks for all the suggestions. What I finally ended up using is GimmeSomeTune and set shortcuts for back, play/pause, and forward, to be apple+F8, apple+F9, and apple+F10, respectively.
posted by alitorbati at 3:59 PM on July 16