I've always used a basic celfone with my only requirement that it can import contacts either via usb or bluetooth and always rely on my PDA to remind me of everything from meetings to calls to birthdays and everything else in between. Well my current PDA, a trusty old Clie UX-50, died on me a few weeks back and eversince then I've missed or have been late on a few concalls and other events. Buying a new PDA is, of course, already out of the question since most phones now come with full pda functionality so I might as well buy a PDA phone. But then I already have a phone, a $50 dual-sim phone that I bought 4months back (I know, I'm so cheap :D but the phone does what I need so hey, can't complain). Plus I haven't really found a pda phone that I really fancy enough to buy, although the Motorola Droid comes to mind (AKA Motorola Milestone here in Asia Pacific).

So my solution? Use my current VoIP box to periodically check my Google calendar (which is syncd with my Outlook Calendar). If it finds a event that is about to start in the next 30mins, call my mobile and read the event title to me using text-to-speech.

What I used:
o SheevaPlug running Debian Lenny
o Asterisk 1.4
o Festival Text-To-Speech application
o PHP to parse my Google calendar's XML feed

Works like a charm :)

I'll put up a guide this coming weekend. Cheers!