i have to disagree about the hold switch...i find it easy to flick it with my thumb and i put my iPod in our take it out of my pocket....no worries at all.
Very big agreeance on the remote cord length...i currently dont use the remote because of that.
and there is a little program called euPOD VolumeBoost which you can get from
http://www.ipodlounge.com which solves volume worries...worked great on my iPod.