So while this is extremely exciting (as in, I just became an iPhone developer in 5 minutes this morning exciting) there are a few things to note:

1. This is only for standalone applications - meaning iPhone/iPod Touch applications that you download from Apple's App Store either on your phone or via iTunes. It does not include Flash played via the Safari mobile web browser. So no online Flash video just yet. Ryan Stewart, an Adobe Platform Evangelist tweeted the following today during the keynote: "When Apple is ready to bring the full Web browsing experience to iPhone users, we'll be ready to bring Flash Player to Safari."

2. You cannot load external SWFs into the apps you compile for the iPhone. The official line on this is: "iPhone applications built with Flash Platform tools are compiled into standard, native iPhone executable packages and there is no runtime interpreter that could be used to run ActionScript bytecode within the application." But in reality, Adobe is just staying within the limits imposed by Apple and their "no running other bytecode in apps" rule.

3. This won't be available until Flash CS5 is released. The good news here is that a public beta of Flash CS5 will be released before the end of 2009.

You can read all about this announcement over on Adobe Labs: Flash Professional CS5 Applications for iPhone, at the official Adobe press release, and in the Adobe Dev Center where they have posted an article about Developing for the Apple iPhone using Flash. The Dev Center article goes into some good technical explanation of what is going on behind the scenes.

There is also an extensive technical FAQ available on Adobe Labs which is worth the read.

Lastly, you can see some quick video of the Mythbusters-type segment they did as the announcement below:

The app includes class references for Adobe AIR 1.5, Adobe Flex 3.2 and Flash Player 10. I've been testing it this weekend and it has run great.

There is more information on Mike's website for the app, including a download link for the iTunes App Store. If you want to install the app directly on your phone, you'll need to search for "Mike Chambers" to find the app while it works its way into the App Store search.

However, Paul was quick to mention that this comes with one cavat - since Apple decides what runs on their platform, they could ultimately veto the platform add-on and kill the project. It should be noted that if Apple agrees, Adobe will apparently have the player ready "very shortly".

The big question that now remains: what version of the Flash Player will it be? FlashLite? Flash Player 8/9/10? I would think with all the games they have running on the iPhone that they could get Flash Player 10 running pretty well. Or, version 9 at the very least.

You can read more details from other bloggers who are also attending the conference, such as Flash Magazine and read all of the "me too" posts from industry news sources on Techmeme.

http://blogs.adobe.com/open/2008/04/the_open_screen_project.html

As a part of the announcement, Adobe is publishing exactly how the SWF format works without restrictions, and removing all other barriers to getting Flash on the widest range of devices. Set top/cable boxes, all mobile phones, televisions, your appliances... anything technical, really. Even those devices without a screen and/or user interface. Bill Perry does a great job of going into more detail on the implications for devices on his blog.

Ryan Stewart has a great post explaining all the implications of this announcement, for devices and desktop computers alike. He goes into more detail on the several parts of the announcement, so it is worth the read.

As someone who makes their living from the Flash ecosystem, you should care greatly about this announcement. It may not seem like it to a non-developer, but this is huge for anyone who knows how to use Flash. The thought of having Flash everywhere is finally a reality for those who want to include it in their products as a user interface layer, or even to allow developers to control the product using ActionScript. And this means that your capabilities to design, develop, and then deploy your Flash experiences just became more marketable and useful.

Lastly, as a member of the Flash community, you should also be excited about the implications this has on open source projects such as SWX, AMFPHP, and the like. The more open the specifications surrounding the various parts of the Flash ecosystem, the easier it is for members of the community to create tools and open source projects which contribute to the growth and prominence of said ecosystem... and make all of our lives as participants in that ecosystem that much more interesting and fun.

It is an honor to be a part of this book with such open source Flash community members as Chris Allen, John Grden, Wade Arnold, Carlos Ulloa, Moses Gunesch and others. You can read bios of all the authors on the book's bio page.

I am wrapping up the last round of review this weekend, and the book should be published and available in July. You can pre-order the book on Amazon.com today for about $31.

Worth the read, if nothing else, to help guide you through the hype to what the real story is...

Update: Bill Perry, also from Adobe, has also posted an even a more detailed account of the facts on his Flash Devices blog.

A few days ago I received an email that it was finally my turn to order a Chumby as part of the insider's launch, and today I placed my order.

What is a Chumby? It's a really small wi-fi networked computer that looks like an odd bedside alarm clock. It has a LCD touchscreen, is almost completely open source, can be extended/customized, and you can make Flash Lite 3 apps to run on it. The Flash Lite 3 was one of the big sellers for me - I'm excited to see what I can do with it, especially since I haven't spent much time developing with Flash Lite before. Oh, and it'll work perfectly with SWX!

Engadget has a nice hands-on post from a pre-production model with lots of photos, but here are some stats from the Chumby website:

Wi-fi connectivity • access to the free Chumby Network • 3.5" LCD color touchscreen • two external USB 2.0 full-speed ports • 350 MHz ARM processor • 64 MB SDRAM • 64 MB NAND flash ROM • stereo 2W speakers • headphone output • squeeze sensor • accelerometer (motion sensor) • leather casing • AC adapter included

I'll be sure to post more details and photos once it arrives.

The competition has three categories: Web, Mobile, and API, and each of the three winners will receive a prize package worth almost $4,000. Not a shabby deal at all. The prize packages include a copy of Adobe CS 3 Web Premium Bundle, a one year premium subscription to Lynda.com, a Nabaztag/tag wi-fi bunny, and an iPod Touch. I have a Nabaztag/tag, and winning one of these alone is worth a few hours of work!

If you have been following the SWX project at all, you already know that I have used SWX on a couple of projects and that I am a huge fan of its simplicity. It just works, and it makes your life as a developer easier. What's not to like? This contest is the perfect way to give it a shot and possibily win some cool stuff.

More details on the contest can be found on the SWX site.

Seriously though, there is some very cool stuff going on with AS3, Flex, and Flash these days. I can only imagine where this will go if Intel and Adobe do indeed get AIR running on mobile devices. It could have the potential to turn wireless carriers into data-only providers -- mobile broadband services.

I would highly suggest when the onAIR tour rolls through your town you check it out. I'll bet they may even have some more Ribbit info they could demo for you while it is in closed beta.

While this is a very nice addition, I doubt this means the end of Flash Lite as there will still be phones with less processing power for quite awhile. However, it is a very welcomed step in the right direction.

There is more information about the presentation on PC Magazine and ZDnet's websites.