I've been given the word at work that I'll need to switch to a cell phone, essentially removing my FREE pager that I receive from them to perform oncall duties, etc.

I don't really have a problem with a cell phone except that work is pushing me to get one, which means I BUY one and spend MY money.  Then they may reimburse me for some of my costs.  That is frustrating in and of itself.  Not to mention all the complications of getting into cell phones.

I can't believe how complicated it is to determine if a cell phone supports my needs or not.  I want a cell phone that replaces my current uses and also provides cell phone usage.  So for me that means a phone that can sync my work calendar and provide the related alerts.  Thats the minimum I need.

Since I'm gonna be paying for it though, I want all the features I demand.  So that means also providing the ability to sync my home calendar onto my cell phone/PDA.  So essentially I'm looking for a cell phone that can sync my personal Outlook 2003 and my work Outlook 2003 onto my cell phone/PDA so I can be alerted for both.  I don't want them to sync 2-way, just collect both onto my cell phone so i have one portable scheduler that keeps personal and work entries separate. 

That really doesn't sound too complicated to me.

Lets not go into the need to keep work and personal stuff separate nowadays.  Its ridiculous how companies demand that they own anything on their servers/computers.  Even when its personal in nature.

But apparently, you'd think I'd of asked for the Messiah to come down and grant 3 wishes.  Frikin unreal.

No where that I look can I find ANY clear indication that this is supported.  And since I can't really test any related software unless I buy a phone I'm really screwed!

So I don't care if I get a cheap phone running Windows Mobile 5 or an expensive one running Palm OS.  As long as it fits my needs.  Which apparently are of such an absurd nature that I'd be better off asking for a flight to Mars.