An open source project called Smokescreen may be the answer to running Flash on devices by Apple. Simon Willison explains how it works.

“[Smokescreen] runs entirely in the browser, reads in SWF binaries, unzips them (in native JS), extracts images and embedded audio and turns them in to base64 encoded data:uris, then stitches the vector graphics back together as animated SVG.”

In other words, Smokescreen works because it translates Flash into Javascript and then converts it into the all-friendly SVG format. The strategy works well with banner ads as shown in the video above, but tests on the 3GS revealed a less than ideal Flash-centric gaming experience.

Is this the future on Apple devices? We suppose only time will tell.