T-Mobile G1 update adds Google voice search: At last, users of the Google Android-powered G1 smartphone will get a crack at Google’s innovative voice searching feature—more than two months after iPhone users got the update, in fact.

Today Google launched a free new application called Latitude, which shows you the real-time location of your friends on a map—as long as they’ve agreed to broadcast their location with you via their cell phone. The service works in 27 countries and can be downloaded to your phone at google.com/latitude. It works on most color-screen BlackBerries, most phones with Windows Mobile 5.0 or later, most Nokia smartphones, and T-Mobile G1 phones.

Finally, Google Voice Search Comes To The G1: T-Mobile USA has confirmed in an online forum that it has started to push out an update to its G1 users. The update, version 1.1, looks like it fixes a number of bugs, but also adds a couple of new features.

That software update for the T-Mobile G1 that’s rolling out the next two weeks just got a little sweeter, as all users will be able to participate in Google Latitude, the friend-location software. Latitude was acting up on us when we tried it on our G1 yesterday while testing it out for our hands on, but we’re sure it will work much better once it comes as part of the software update.

Just because the Internet has broken down geographic barriers, don’t assume that Google doesn’t care about geography. The company plans to launch software called Latitude on Wednesday that lets mobile phone users share their location with close contacts.

The US geographic market for the G1 Android phone is now expanding a second time

We say: ShopSavvy proves that barcode scanning can work in the mobile environment. It’s a great and useful application that can scan a barcode and provide accurate and timely pricing, information and nearby alternatives. And bonus: Its’ free!

When the T-Mobile G1 first went on sale back in October, the only way you could get the device in stores was if you lived in one of the carrier’s 3G markets. Sure, you could have purchased one online, but there was no way to actually go in and check out the goods before buying. Now that’s all about to change.

While the iPhone 3G and the App Store might have the upper-hand when it comes down to application breadth and shear volume of downloadable apps, the Android OS is steadily gaining ground. Popular services already ported to the iPhone OS have started to pop up in the Android Market for downloading with any Android-powered smartphone – most notable, the T-Mobile G1.

Already whittled down from over 100 submissions, only 10 finalists remain to win the honor of CES’s annual competition, Last Gadget Standing.