According to this blog post, Flash support is coming soon on the iPhone. It remains to be seen which version of Flash will be supported on the phone (FlashLite or the full Flash Player), but keep in mind that the iPhone uses a stripped down version of OS X. To me that would imply that the player will be Flash Player 9, which would include support for Flex applications.

This is a pretty cool site that I should have blogged about a while ago. These would make great Christmas gifts. Unique Skins allows you to easily create custom skins for your electronic gear, like your iPhone, iPod Touch, Nintendo Wii, Blackberry etc... Users select images from the site, add custom text and create skins that can be applied to pretty much any device.

The editor for the site is made using Activa Canvas from the team at Active Media Architects, and is done in Flex and Ajax. First you select the device from their list of template, so you can see what the end product is going to look like. Then, you select an image from the right hand side of the screen to add to your custom skin. They have categories such as Holidays, Nature, Abstract, Sports, Flags which each contain a dozen or so images. If you don't like what they provide, you can easily upload your own photo and use that for your skin. You can add custom text to your skin, with support for different colours and text styles.

Once you're done designing the skin, you go through a simple ordering system. Most skins are about $15 or so. Once the order is submitted, Unique Skins will create the custom skin and then mail you the finished product. When you receive the skin, you apply it to your device, customizing it with your own look and feel. Their FAQ has more details on the process.

The idea is excellent and I've seen the finished product- they're really well done. The site is well done and easy to use, and from a technical stand point the integration of Flex and Ajax makes a lot of sense. If you're interested in customizing your iPhone, or if you're interested in seeing Flex and Ajax work together, you should check them out.

How important is Flash on the Internet? Well, its hit the level of iPhone parody material, so that must mean something.

Not to get too serious about this, but it does show how prevalent Flash has become in the past few years on the web. Its a required plugin for a ton of sites, and its ubiquity is one of the reasons that I believe that Flex will continue to gain momentum in the rich Internet application space.

I can't resist adding to the hype of the iPhone. Joe Johnston, over at merhl.com, has developed an AIR version of the iPhone. It's available now, but so far only the web browser and the contacts are active. It's got auto-update built in, so as Joe updates the application, the new features should become available.