I've no idea if it's true that the iPod is bad at playing podcasts, but in any case it would be a terrible idea for Microsoft to base its strategy around a weakness of their competitor, that their competitor could fix with a few days of development and a free software update.

What's wrong with creating new products -- ones that don't already exist?

Nothing at all. I didn't say there was anything wrong with it.

I've listened to podcasts on my iPod and iTunes for years, through successive generations of hardware and software on both ends, and cannot think of how it could be construed as an Apple weakness. It's a pretty flawless system.

I want to be able to stop a podcast, listen to something else and resume the podcast at the point I stopped it. How do I do this on an iPod?

On an iPod Touch/iPhone:

1. Tap Pause 2. Tap Songs, choose something 3. Listen, get bored 4. Tap Podcasts (if you pulled it down to your iPod dock, or More.. Podcasts if you didn't) 5. Tap Play.