* Effecting particle properties with textures was possible in 2.49,
but not in 2.5 anymore.
* Now particles have their own textures (available in texture panel
for objects with particle systems), which are totally separate from
the material textures.
* Currently a basic set of particle properties is available for
texture control. Some others could still be added, but the whole
system is not intended as an "change anything with a texture" as
this kind of functionality will be provided with node particles in
the future much better.
* Combined with the previously added "particle texture coordinates"
this new functionality also solves the problem of animating particle
properties through the particle lifetime nicely.
* Currently the textures only use the intensity of the texture in
"multiply" blending mode, so in order for the textures to effect
a particle parameter there has to be a non-zero value defined for
the parameter in the particle settings. Other blend modes can be
added later if they're considered useful enough.