iPhone-owning students of Japanese (or of anything else that require memorisation) may be familiar with Anki, but perhaps may not be so familiar with iAnki, the mobile version.

As with Anki itself, iAnki is a work in progress, and prospective users shouldn’t expect an all-singing all-dancing iPhone App. What there is though is pretty solid, and does what it needs to do.

iAnki is not a traditional stand-alone iPhone App. Rather than installing it via iTunes, it works through Safari. Installation is pretty simple: having opened Anki on your computer start up the plugin “iAnki server” on your computer; this can be accessed over local wifi networks (i.e. your home wifi network) by local devices (such as your iPhone). Next, simply connect your device to that server by browsing to the IP address given, typically 192.168.0.1:8000 – then click on Sync.

I must admit to have had a few teething troubles to get it to sync, but once it’s done it once, it seems to work fine. You now have a copy of your iAnki cards on you iPhone (or other mobile device) – perfect for when riding the subway and unable to access Anki’s web-based version.

I’m looking forward to seeing future incarnations of iAnki – someone throw some money at the developer!