What I find interesting is how they can tap into the AF code with a firmware to speed things up.
My take is
1) Original EOS-M firmware and/or hardware design had bugs related to the AF system.
2) New firmware fixes or works around at least some of those bugs.
I don't see anything interesting about this unless you are an EOS-M owner. Bugs in a new system are expected, and even when the underlying fault is in hardware it's pretty common to be able to get some improvement through firmware workarounds.
I see absolutely no reason to think that similar speedups would be possible in cameras that weren't buggy to start with.
And yes, waterwingz is right that "up to" is a magic phrase that doesn't necessarily much
