Editor’s note: I posted this yesterday, but my categories were incorrect so it wasn’t picked up by MXNA. Sorry it’s late

I’m late with this because it’s been a hectic week here. Aside from the Flex 2 beta, there were a couple of other things that happened this week which should be mentioned. It’ll be a quick post.

On Monday, Jesse Warden gave his impression of Sparkle which is a must-read. I think he gave it the most in depth walkthrough, and discusses it without much bias.

On Tuesday, Engadget had a tutorial on how to run Flash games on your Xbox 360. Aside from the Flex 2 beta, this was the coolest news of the week. This is exactly what I mean when I talk about the Flash Platform transcending barriers. What can’t you put Flash on.

Another major piece of news on Tuesday was the release of Flash Player penetration. Version 8 is already at 45.2% in the states and over 55% in Europe. Those numbers are awesome.

Last on Tuesday, Adobe had their Financial Analyst meeting which (despite the crazy wait in the middle) was worth a watch. It was mostly financial and vision talk, but they’re excited about the Flash platform, and they’re excited about the universal client as well.

Wednesday was the big bomb, the release of the Flex 2 beta and the news that they’ll be releasing parts of the Flex framework for free. It’s huge, huge news. I wish it had gotten more press, but keep spreading the word.

Then on Thursday Techcrunch posted some information about Gtalkr and the new features they rolled out. If you haven’t tried Gtalkr, you should head over and take a look. What they’re doing with Flash and how they’re integrating it to other Flash applications is cool. Their API is also very intriguing. Between Gtalkr and Goowy, Flash is showing that smaller companies can make a big splash.

Remember, if there’s anything I missed or anything you’d like to see next week, send me an e-mail. Have a good weekend and hopefully you’re rooting for the Seahawks on Sunday.