Many more moderately-priced phones have basic calendar and contact functions, but carriers do a miserable job of helping consumers synchronize those phones with the computers that manage them today.

ENGADGET: Switched On -- PDAs, a multiple murder mystery

This upgrade for the Playbook - RIM's first foray into the tablet market - also sees built-in calendar and contacts functions added, as well as tighter integration with social networks such as Twitter and LinkedIn.

BBC: Blackberry-maker RIM releases late Playbook OS upgrade

Through the combination of calendar and navigation functions, for example, the system would know if the driver is running late due to traffic, so it could automatically ask if the driver wants to contact the parties of upcoming meetings and inform them about the delay.

ENGADGET: Garmin K2 in-dash infotainment system brings a hint of glass cockpit to the road

Android does support mail, calendar, and phonebook functions, but it works best when coupled with the Google applications for these, including G-Mail.

FORBES: Guess Who Keeps Wireless Operators Up At Night?

These initial forays have primarily been around offering employees mobile access to standard communications functions such as email, calendar and directory access and offering customers Web access to non-mission-critical functions.

FORBES: Time For IT Shops To Get Moving On Enterprise Mobility

However there are five functions in Outlook: Contacts, Calendar, Notes, Tasks and Email.

FORBES: On the Other Hand: Windows Phone and What Really Makes an Attractive Package

For some of its functions, like email and the calendar, you can control how much data it stores by going into settings and specifying how many messages it should show from each account, or how far back in time its calendar should sync with the calendar service it uses.

WSJ: Should You Upgrade to Windows 8?