Outlook for Mac will soon be able to sync calendars, notes, and tasks with your iOS device. Microsoft announced on Tuesday that it plans to release Office for Mac 2011 Service Pack 1 (SP1) next week, which will bring the new syncing support to Outlook along with other stability and security updates to the suite. But while users will be able to sync their Outlook calendars to their iPads, iPhones, and iPod touches, they won't be able to sync them easily with Apple's own MobileMe service.

According to Office for Mac's senior director of Product Management Pat Fox, iOS device syncing has been one of the Mac Business Unit's top feature requests ever since releasing Outlook for Mac in 2010. The SP1 update will enable Outlook to interface with Apple's own Sync Services, which will in turn allow the data to show up on an iOS device without any extra effort on the user's part.

The company does warn, however, that calendars and tasks won't be synced with MobileMe thanks to a change that Apple made to its services that goes into effect on May 5—or now, if you've already upgraded your account to the new MobileMe calendars. Notes can still be synced to MobileMe though, and the syncing of mail and contacts with MobileMe remains intact.

(It should be noted that Outlook for Windows syncs calendars just fine with MobileMe, so this appears to be an issue on Microsoft's end with Outlook for Mac. Also, Apple's own iCal can still sync with Exchange.)

While the addition of SyncServices is the headliner in SP1, Microsoft points out that there will be other feature additions as well. Outlook will gain a redirect button and a resend button for mail messages, and will be able to edit existing messages. It will also get support for Exchange-based server-side rules, while Excel will gain Solver integration support.

"Office for Mac SP1 is a big step forward," Fox wrote. "But we know we have more work to do, specifically around better integration with additional services."