Here's a little productivity killer for your smartphones.

PhatWare's PhatSketch 1.0 for Windows Mobile 3.0 and up simulates on the keypad the functionality of those little red boxes of boxy pre-school art we know and love as the Etch-A-Sketch. Well, "simulate" may not be the proper word - the control scheme described in the product's website is not exactly the two vertical-horizontal control knobs we've come to know and love.

It's more of like "markers" and "cursors" - eerily similar to MS Paint.

Which could probably be a good thing, like for instance, this app will draw curves. Try that on an Etch-A-Sketch (I've heard it's possible, but hey, I ain't no Picasso). Additional functions include a 42-color palette for lines and background, save the image as a JPEG, PNG, or BMP file, upload a JPEG, PNG, or BMP file into the background to draw over - MMS pranksters must be itching to get their hands on this feature - and even "animate the sketch," which isn't what you think it is, but simply that the program will redraw the image, mimicking the strokes you used to draw it in the first place.

You can undo and redo last moves, and delete lines and markers that just rub your handheld artwork the wrong way.

Yeah, it's more MS Paint than Etch-A-Sketch, but that doesn't make it any less fun. Of course, until you try to extend the Etch-A-Sketch analogy and try to shake the image out of your phone instead of hitting the delete function.

Follow the source link to find where to download this app. It'll cost around $9.95 (plus $3.00 for download protection) at their webstore.

This isn't the first time we've covered a mobile paint app - check this out if you happen to own a PSP.

Program requires:

•   Microsoft Windows Mobile based Smartphone 2002/2003/2003SE/2005
•   Microsoft Windows Mobile 3.0 or later