In addition to automatically displaying the "now playing" screen w/ remaining 
time and progress bar (or something similar) on pressing FF of REW, I think 
another helpful and intuitive feature would be for the x4,x8,x12 speeds to 
ramp up automatically similarly to how the volume , or title scrolling 
currently works "on button hold". Most MP3 and CD players work this way... On 
button release, the player could either automatically start playing (like a CD 
Player) or it could continue as it does now, until Play, Pause, or the 
opposite scanning direction button is pressed (like some MP3 players and most 
video players). Perhaps this could be user configurable? Or perhaps the two 
functions could be rolled into one... where tapping the FF button "skips" 20 
secs forward, and REW skips 5 sec back and resumes play automatically (like 
Tivo/MCE 2004). Holding down the same FF/REW for longer than x seconds (user 
selectable?) would begin the automatic ramping described above.

Another additional tweak might be to add to or replace the existing x2,x4, 
etc. display with larger, easier to read at a distance >,>>,>>>,etc. 
directional icons in addition to the elapsed time bar.

Even more: Pressing REW while paused could go to the start of the track (still 
paused), as Dean suggested... in addition pressing FFWD while paused could 
bring bring the user 20secs (user confugurable?) away from the end of the 
track. A handy feature for those wanting to listen to the last few seconds of 
a song to see how it blends with the next track when putting together 
playlists.