For Olympus, the "hold" function is basically to turn power off completely. Otherwise, the buttons will bring it alive or it could be in a mode to voice activate. So the "Power Hold" switch is just the power switch...not a "Pause" function. At least that describes it as it is implemented on other Olympus recorders.
Hope this will answer some of your questions regarding this recorder:
Actually, the hold function will not turn off the recorder. It is a similar switch as the MR-1. If you press down it will power on and if you click upward it will act as a hold switch.
The pictures does not really show much but there is also a "pause" option. If you press the REC it will not record straight away but will be in REC pause mode. You need to press the REC again to start recording. If you press the REC during recording it will pause the recording.
The remote is planned to be released in the Spring of 2008 so you have to wait a little longer.
You can adjust the brightness and contrast on the monitor.
There's a few extra features, which I will not go into.