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Hot on the heels of the Touch 3G gaining FCC approval, the Federal Communications Commission has approved the HTC Touch HD, albeit in the European flavor without the U.S. 3G bands. That's OK, because it means we'll be able to import it here and them complain about how it doesn't work well enough (hello, Diamond?).

It's also the usual step toward getting an honest-to-goodness U.S. version, so we'll take what we can get.

In other Touch HD news, Arne over at The Unwired has a great hands-on video with the device. That's 23 minutes of 480x800 goodness, with a good look at how the hardware handles TouchFLO 3D. It's smooth, even in what presumably is not the final production ROM. But will it be quick enough to satisfy?

Check out the video here.

Fall is here, and it's time for Software Wrangle 19! Throw on your horse blanket, saddle up, and get ready to lasso and wrangle some Windows Mobile apps!

This week, WM Standard new software is Dashwire and Business Professional Ringtones. Updated software includes Elecont Weather and Tank Ace 1944. The free app this week is WeatherBug Direct.

WM Professional new software are Meon and Lyma Power Budget. Updated software includes MeTeoR Digital Multi-Track Recorder and Efficasoft Outliner. Freeware is Media Remote v1.00.

WM Standard: New

First up this week for a WM Standard app is Dashwire. Dashwire makes it easy to connect your mobile device to your desktop or laptop and the web.

Dashwire

This is another one where we just have to shake our heads and sigh.

CNET's Ina Fried posts on her blog [via] that Microsoft has told a handful of its partners not to expect a final build of its Windows Mobile 7 operating system until the second half of 2009.

Not exactly the sort of WinMo news we hoped to bring you on the day the first Android device is officially released.

Fried does write that we shouldn't have to go cold turkey as we wait for WM7, with an update to Internet Explorer Mobile still in the works. (Yeah, that doesn't make us feel much better, either.)

We are, however, reminded by Fried of a speech Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer gave in April in which he spoke of the sweeping changes planned for WM7.

"The work we're doing on Windows Mobile 7, which is the next major release of Windows Mobile, not just in the Windows Mobile team, but across Windows Mobile, in Silverlight, the development platform, the e-mail, the back end, I think you'll continue to see that as an area of major excitement and innovation for the company as we move forward."

And while Silverlight has had a bumpy start, the rumor of a Microsoft-led application store could well be what's holding this whole thing up, and it could well be worth it.

In the meantime, Microsoft appears content to let outside manufacturers do the UI legwork, a la HTC's TouchFlo and the sliding panels on the upcoming Xperia X1, and third-party options such as SPB's Mobile Shell.

Group product manager Scott Rockfeld tells CNET's Fried:

"Customers don't have to sit back and wait. There's tons of stuff coming from us and our partners."

But we do have to sit back and wait from Microsoft. Again.

We are all awaiting the arrival of the Touch HD, Touch Viva, and Touch 3G from HTC to drop. Now that the FSS has just passed the Touch3G, aka Jade100, one would be forgiven for hoping it might see official release on these shores. The 3G bands on the device are not compatible with the US spectrum, however, so this is more in line with HTC/FCC interactions of yore: they're just making sure the European version of the Touch 3G is 'street legal.'

So will we see an official US release? The original announcement didn't really have any clues to suggest we might and really, given that HTC said the Touch HD would come here eventually, it would seem a little odd to also make another version of the 3G. Then again, we could (and have) say the very existence of the Touch 3G in a post-Touch-Diamond world is a little odd, so you never know.

Today's the day, the T-Mobile G1 is coming. Our brand new baby sister site, Android Central, is covering the big news in rapid blog-post-style. If you're fearing that Android is going to take down Windows Mobile, well, we're a little sympathetic. We suppose it's worth noting that Windows Mobile hardware can run Android, actually, it's already been done on the Tilt.

We recommend you check out this quality article at PC Mag by Sascha Segan, which argues fairly convincingly that it's not Windows Mobile that need be afraid, it's feature phones. Android probably won't be feature-competitive with WM (at least for awhile, anyway), but a free and extensible OS is just what the crappy UI on your standard free phone needs. So there's some breathing room there, Microsoft, though we hope you're using it to push Windows Mobile 7 out the door more quickly before it becomes hyper-ventilation room.

Anyhow, welcome is due to our new kid sister blog, Android Central. Go on and give her a noogie.

Samsung does it. Palm does it. Motorola still (barely) has its head above water. HTC is doing better than just about everyone else. HP. Velocity. Toshiba. MWg. The list goes on.

Now, according to Digitimes [via], Acer is set to launch its own brand of smartphones in Q1 of 2009. The first devices would be released in Western Europe and Russia.

Windows Mobile isn't specifically mentioned, though it's a pretty good bet, considering the source.

And it's been a couple of months since we've reported any rumors of Dell getting back into the smartphone game, so here goes:

Michael Dell recently told Engadget Mobile that they eventually could be producing "smaller and smaller devices that have capabilities of the [iPhone]."

There. Feel better? Us, too.

Ariel points us to take a gander at the D-1100 from Indian manufacturer Spice Mobile [via]. It looks like a pretty standard Windows Mobile Pro device -- with a 320x240 touchscreen on WM 6.0, a standard 10 key keypad, a 2mp camera, and a 1340mAh battery. Looks can be deceiving.

The D-1100 may be EDGE-only, but it has two EDGE radios and SIM card slots for the both of them. One supports 850/900/1800/1900 bands and the other 900/1800. What's cool is that it's able to have both sim cards active simultaneously -- although only one of them will be able to access data and mms. Why would you want this? Travel. Hit up a foreign land, buy yourself a local SIM card and put it in the main slot for cheaper data, take your current SIM card and put it in the secondary slot so you don't have to worry about forwarding your calls and missing your texts.

Finding one will be pretty tough, but it should only put you back around 17,000 Indian Rupees, or somewhere just south of $400 US dollars.

Thanks, Ariel!