The 4GB limit is not Apple's fault, nor can it be "fixed" by Apple. The 4GB file size limit is inherent to the FAT32 format (i.e., "MS-DOS" format), so any and all operating systems that use the FAT32 format are limited to file sizes of 4GB or less. Even Windows.
There is software available for Windows that will allow Windows to read and write to drives in the HFS+ format (MacDrive is but one example).
You can also get Mac OS X to read and write to NTFS-formatted drives as well -- under Leopard systems and earlier, you can use any one of the available drivers to do this (Paragon NTFS, NTFS-3G, etc.). Under Snow Leopard, you can also use a 3rd-party driver, but there is limited built-in support for reading and writing to NTFS-formatted drives which can be activated with terminal commands.