Wok-intensity cooking without all that heat

Remember induction cooktops? I remember seeing them described in magazines and catalogues when I was a kid, and being amazed that a cool surface could actually heat up a pan on the stove. Newer induction models, as described in Deborah Baldwin's NYT piece “Smitten at the Stove: A Stranger Both Hot and Cool,” can actually pack a wallop enough to heat a wok to restaurant kitchen temperatures. (This is a godsend for kitchens in areas where it gets really hot in the summer, like NYC or even SoCal, for instance—no longer do you have to put up with those hot gas jets when you're stir-frying up a storm.) Not cheap, but apparently worth the price—the temperature control on one of these things can even “achieve that elusive trickle of bubbles known as ‘just below a simmer,’” as Ms. Baldwin attests.