I’m fairly certain that my first reaction on seeing my wife suddenly go into serious labor would be panic. And the furthest thing from my mind would be, “oh, I’ll just deliver this little guy.” That’s not happening. For Leroy Smith, though, there wasn’t a second thought. He fired up Google on the old Blackberry and delivered his fourth child while the family’s midwife was en route.

Upon arrival, all the midwife had to do was clamp and cut the umbilical cord. The newest Smith was born without incident. According to the UK’s Sun:

Leroy said before the birth of Mahalia on December 1, his wife disapproved of his BlackBerry because he was always playing with it but now she has “changed her tune”.

Smith says he’s told the story over and over, and that his other children are proud. They should be. Delivering a baby is no easy task, let alone doing it without a single hang-up.

Source: Sun

Starting tomorrow, Walmart’s offering a pretty nice deal for new Blackberry owners. When you purchase a new Blackberry, either in the store or online, you’ll get a $100 gift, which you’ll likely then blow on chargers and other accessories. It’s a great deal, and it runs through the end of next week.

The deal works like a rebate for online purchases, so you’re waiting 4-6 weeks for your card, but in-store purchases get the gift card instantly. And yes, this is for two-year contracts only.

As for the phones you can get, Walmart carries the following Blackberry devices:

– AT&T Curve 8310
– AT&T Bold 9000
– Sprint Curve 8330
– T-Mobile 8520
– T-Mobile Pearl 8120
– Verizon Storm
– Verizon Storm II

Again, deal runs from the 14th to the 21st.

Verizon made a quiet little announcement yesterday – the Blackberry Storm 2 will be out tomorrow, October 28th. The news follows a year of leaks, so it’s not much of a surprise. It’s odd, though, that Big Red is so nonchalant about the release. The original Storm wasn’t quite the hit it was supposed to be, but the Storm 2 is supposed to have fixed most of the original problems.

Part of the Storm 2’s problem is that it’s been almost universally panned. The GPS is supposedly awful and the Blackberry OS 5.0 has a tendency to reset spontaneously on the 9550. There’s also the fact that the Blackberry OS continues to age while systems like the iPhone OS and Android are doing a better job of growing alongside the devices they support.

As for positive additions, the Storm 2 finally adds WiFi and makes a big improvement on the original’s touchscreen. The Storm 2 will run $179.99 on contract after a $100 mail-in rebate.

Engadget got an early look at some accessories for the Blackberry Storm 2 today. It’s just more in a year-long string of leaks that point to a release some time this month, maybe even some time this week. The shots from Best Buy are just some silicone skins, but none of the material can seem to agree on a name for the device.

The accessory packaging shows 9550, the numeric nomenclature for the device, Storm II (is there a Storm III in the works?) and even Odin, which used to be the product’s code name. The three names show up right next to one another, apparently to assuage any doubt about just which device the skins are for. That a major retail chain has them, though, almost definitely points to a release date in the near future.

Blackberry is notoriously skimpy on their Mac support. Every time they roll out a new feature it seems the comments always go, “Great! But what about Mac?” Beg no longer, you Mac/Blackberry users – the Desktop Manager is coming this September.

Shocked with disbelief? Don’t be. It’s a full-fledged version of Desktop Manager – the same thing that runs on PCs. I know, I know, it’s been a long, hard road, and there have been plenty of tears along the way. It’s all over this September, though. You’ll be getting all sorts of new goodies, like iTunes sync for music, calendars, notes, everything really. You’ll also have application support, software updates, the ability to backup and restore your phone (with encrypted backups), and you can even manage multiple devices from the same machine. Now that’s what I’m talking about!

You may have noticed a theme here – the word September with no proceeding date. That’s because there isn’t one. Blackberry has yet to say exactly when the handy new software will be available, so you’ll just have to start watching on September 1.