Jquery Cycle Questions: Pause on load + Hover Action

Answer 1

EDIT: Added answer for first question.

First question: Add the pagerClick option to the cycle function.

pagerClick:function(zeroBasedSlideIndex, slideElement) {$(slideElement).find('div.cover').hide();}

The second question seems easy: based on the plugin doc:

Assuming you have a play/pause btn

btnPlayPause.toggle(function(){$("#slideshow").cycle('pause');},function(){$("#slideshow.cycle('resume');})

you can also change the play/pause button image in those functions. Also look here