T-Mobile G1 owners soon will get an over-the-air software update that should fix a few bugs and introduce some pleasant surprises as well. The most exciting of which is that Google is adding voice recognition to search, something that has already been available on the iPhone for a couple of months. The feature, which will be integrated into the Android browser and the home screen search widget, should be especially convenient on the G1 because it means users won't have to flip open the screen to get search results.
Other new features include the ability to save pictures received as MMS, a new option to report offensive comments in the Market as spam, and a way to check for system updates. The update to firmware version 1.1 started to go out to a small number of users yesterday, but will be sent to all G1 users over the next two weeks. T-Mobile did make it clear that this release is not associated with the "Cupcake" update, which is currently being developed but has no firm release date, and will reportedly bring video recording, stereo Bluetooth support and an onscreen keyboard.