Ron,

Most of the smart phones are able to sync with an Outlook calendar or similar program to alert you about upcoming meetings or appointments.There are programs that will sync Outlook with other phones as well. I am only familiar with the Motorola Razr at this point- Good phone after I ground the buttons off the outside so it would quit taking pictures and adjusting the volume on it's own in my pockets.

I find it actually pretty quick to enter appointments in my phone using abbreviations, but the above solutions would allow you to enter them at your desktop or laptop to avoid using the phone text pad.