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The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has approved High Tech Computer's (HTC) upcoming powerhouse smartphone, the Kaiser, for release in the United States. A thumbs up from this particular government agency is an essential hurdle all wireless devices must earn before entering this country.

According to recent rumors, the Kaiser will replace AT&T's popular and powerful AT&T 8525 (formally the Cingular 8525)ѿperhaps as soon as next month, but likelier in Septemberѿas the AT&T 8925. HTC filed a confidentiality request with the FCC to keep certain technical details about the Kaiser under wraps until September 10th.

In addition to FCC approval, here's what else we know about the HTC Kaiser so far:

While the AT&T 8925 should look a lot like its predecessor—tablet design, full slider keyboard, 2.8-inch 240 x 320 pixel resolution touch display—there will be a number of improvements.

For example, when you slide the keyboard out from underneath the screen, you'll be able to tilt the screen up laptop style (see top image). It'll also ship with Microsoft's latest mobile platform, Windows Mobile 6. So instead of being labeled a Pocket PC Phone like the AT&T 8525, it'll be called a Windows Mobile Professional device. (See links below for more what the new operating system brings to the table.)

Additional features in the loaded AT&T 8925—a quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE phone with UMTS/HSDPA 3G networking support—include GPS, a 2.8 megapixel camera, 400MHZ CPU, a Windows Mobile 6-friendly 128MB of RAM, 256MB of ROM, a microSD slot, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0, USB 2.0, and high-capacity 1500mAH battery.