This is something that I've heard come up a lot in conversation and in a lot of different places across the web. Lee Brimlow brings up some interesting points in an article worth reading over at
The Flash Blog. Check it out. Flash is Not a Stepping Stone!

I have worked some with the AS2 Yahoo! maps components, and the AS2 version integrated pretty well with Flex, but I have been anxiously waiting for an AS3 version.

With only a couple of lines of code, literally, you can get their mapping component working in your own Flex app...

Check it out here:
Yahoo! Maps AS3

The ASTRA website (Yahoo/Flash Developer Center) sums it up best:

ASTRA, the ActionScript Toolkit for Rich Applications, is a collection of Flash and Flex components, code libraries, toolkits and utilties developed by Yahoo! for ActionScript developers. These libraries available under the terms of the open source BSD license.

Yahoo has built components that are available for Flex 3 AND Flash CS3. The components are well documented, and they appear to be easily skinnable. Great work Yahoo!

The Ultrashock community has been a big inspiration for me over the years. I haven't spent as much time on their site lately, but I used to really enjoy reading through their forums.

A site upgrade may have been long overdue, but they have certainly outdone themselves this time around. They have hooked up one of the sweetest Flex sites I have seen. I'm not sure how practical this type of implementation is (especially in regards to search engine compatibility), but it sure looks cool :). It also looks like they have earned an FWA site of the day. Nice!

I follow Ryan Stewart's blog. He is well versed in Flex and other RIA technologies, and is employed at Adobe as an RIA Evangelist. His opinions are generally not heavily weighted in Adobe's favor. There were no big surprises here, but it's nice to know that we're moving the right direction.

His post on RIA predictions for 2008 is worth reading...

Ryan Stewart: Rich Internet application predictions for 2008
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Stewart/?p=699

Here is another good (and very relevant) forecast article:

12 predictions for Enterprise Web 2.0 in 2008
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Hinchcliffe/?p=157

I ran across a site called FillColors.com that is promoting the separation of style and layout in Flex applications.

The concept isn't new; CSS Zen Garden has been using a similar tactic for ages to generate buzz around CSS styling in HTML pages, but I think this could be a great way to derail the idea that all Flex applications have to have the same basic, default, out-of-the-box look and feel.

Fill Colors is also sponsoring a contest to encourage new entries. The winner will receive a license for Flex Builder 2.

The Flex Bug and Issue Management System is now available publicly for the Flash community. Adobe has opened the doors on the internal development efforts and provided a powerful tool for direct feedback from developers. Permission is granted to all users not only browse reports, but create new ones. Equally important, Adobe engineers use this same tracking system and all issues are reviewed and maintained by QA on a daily basis.

Since so many issues and feature requests are reported, the Jira tracking system provides a clever way to rank issue importance. Developers who find a particular issue of high importance, can vote for that issue. More votes equals higher priority. QA has done a nice job of tagging those issues that need more votes to be implemented.

I can think of no more proactive way to mold a product release than by participating here. It's a good idea to check on issues regularly and vote for what best helps you develop better applications. If you don't find what you need, submit a new issue. If you don't like how Flex 3 turns out, you should have seen it coming...