After using Gurbani Anywhere on my phone for the last few weeks, my little brother has been getting pretty jealous of all the cool things I could do with it sitting in Diwans, Kirtans, or anytime on-the-go. So Yesterday I grabbed his iPhone and installed the iSikhi iPhone app, which promises to

• Work on iPhone, iPhone 3G, and iTouch devices
• Search Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji and view shabad(s) line by line with english translations
• Search with either First Letters or First Letters Anywhere
• Simple to install like any other iPhone application through App Store. No need to JailBreak your iPhone or any other modifications are required.

Let’s have a look at version 3 of this software. One thing to note is that my brother has the iPhone 2G, but is running version 3.0 of the iPhone OS. I suggest you view these pictures in order:

So the application is extremely clean and well-made. The gurmukhi keyboard and input work wonderfully. One thing I did notice is that performance on this older iPhone was definetly slower than expected, but not enough to bother me too much, or deter me from further use. The application makes good use of the iPhones screen real estate, and viewing the shabad in landscape mode with a slightly increased font makes it perfect for balancing on top of the vaja while practising kirtan.

There are some features from Gurbani Anywhere (which has an upcoming iPhone release also) are the transliterations, favorites, increased viewing options, and searching Bhai Gurdas Vara and Dasam Granth. Hopefully the iSikhi dev team can add some of these and more in upcoming releases.

Head on over to the iSikhi website, install it, donate, and post on the forums for help, comments, and support

So my buddy Mr. Sikhnet contacted me and pointed me to this intriguing app called Gurbani Anywhere. This App promises to “enable fast and efficient methods to search & display Gurbani, on a truly mobile platform.”

So I registered on the website and waited (not-so)patiently for a several hours to get my membership approved. (Update: they have listened to user requests and enabled email activation rather than manual administrator activation for the website – definetly much easier to get to the download and forums now!)Finally got the download link so let’s have a look!

The app is distributed as a .zip file download from the site containing a terse README and a standard CAB file. Any owner of a windows mobile phone will know what this is and immediately what to do with it. Note: The application and cab file come in at a hefty 66MB so you will definitely want to transfer and install this to a storage card rather than to your phones (or PDA’s) main memory.

So I transferred the cab file over to my phone and installed it to the card. Let’s take a first-look visual tour!

Overall I found this to be a very nifty app, and I’m sure once the developers do some more updates, this will quickly  become the defacto standard in Sikh mobile applications. Personally I’ve allready replaced Sikhi To The Max – Mobile on my phone with this, as it’s much better, more stable, has active developers, has more features, and is generally a better product. The various cool features, and addition of SDGS and Bhai Gurdas Vara make it especially compelling. I would strongly encourage everyone with a windows mobile device to run over to the website, register, download, and give some positive feedback to the developers as soon as you can!

Unlike my usual self, I will not mirror the installer here as the developers have asked that everyone please register on their site/forums