Yeah, the CPU control has been around for ages on the G5, it's just getting better
The thermal stuff is BS in a way; When comparing "apples to apples", the P4 is a monster. All the current 3.2-3.8 chips are rated up to a max of 130w, and even at the 100w rating that dualcore G5 gets, that's still 30w (about 2 low power G5s) cooler than a P4...
Where Apple plans to "make up for speed" they probably will in code. OS X has been "notoriously sloppy" with that one for years, shoot every new build so far has been "slightly tweaked" to squeeze more performance out since 10.0 days, and you KNOW that wasn't just hardware (If I load 10.0.4 on my dual 800 it'll run WAY slower than 10.4.0!)
Right now the only thing Intel has to winning Apple's favor is that they haven't pulled a "motorola" on Apple (yet). While the proof is in the pudding (P4? Massive decision change.. hey wait first NetBurst is the future and then it's crap?!).. sounds kinda like Apple right now..
But they haven't gotten ditched mid-line. Admittedly, I still don't think anyone at IBM was dumb enough to tell Steve Jobs to tell everyone they'd be able to have 3ghz processors in a year. Not even Intel went from 2-3ghz in 1 year, and they're all.. reputed and stuff.. for being "so fast" right now.
It still might be that the whole thing was a political decision -- sure maklar and rosetta have been around for ages, we knew that anyway; The decision to put it in action was not.
Every step in the "Intel" direction reveals yellow tape hanging loose. Intel people say "Some apple people came over and really liked what they saw", IBM people say "we never saw it coming", and Motorola people? Oh wait, they trade insults with Steve Jobs over the ROKR..
A certain company of the AIM alliance just got caught red handed!

Unfortunately, IBM gets to pay for it since they're not exactly off the hook for the 3ghz thing.
That, and apparently Steve Jobs really likes options, even that means being kicked out of Nordstrom's for Ross and Big Lots.