well, how can I group similar apps? They are all listed alphabetically
That's one of the big problems with the basic design of the Android home screens/launcher. Not only are all of your apps shown on a single huge scrolling panel that can't be customized, but coming to Android from WM, I was surprised to find that there's no distinction between "real" apps (the ones you start via an icon shortcut) and apps that you
don't directly invoke (things like themes, some widgets, etc.)
Android clearly maintains a separate list of installed apps that appears when you use ASTRO or any other app manager, so why is it necessary to have 'apps' like themes even added to the app drawer list? Whether or not their app should be added to the list in the app drawer should really be something that developers could specify within their .apk file.
Anyway, here's a couple workarounds:
1- Install GDE, which lets you define as many app folders as you like. When you pull up the app drawer, you can first select which folder you want to see (including the default "all apps"). It also lets you choose whether you want to select from a page full of icons, or from a vertically-scrolling icon/name list (which I usually prefer). Frankly, I think this is more how native Android have been designed. I hate having to use a third-party launcher/shell, especially with 2.1 coming soon, but it sure makes things a lot more manageable.
2- Install either appOrganizer (free) or abcOrganizer (paid). Either makes it super-quick and easy to create folders and assign apps into the folders. These folders are then available as shortcuts which can added to any home screen (They work very nicely when added to the pull-in side panels on Panda Home!). The downside is that this completely bypasses the standard app drawer, which I do like... but at least you end up with the ability to find and start apps much more easily.
I have also tried BetterCut, but was unhappy that it can't change the icons globally -- just for apps displayed on the home screens, and not the app drawer list, app managers, etc. It's nice to learn that this can be done with root access, although it's certainly a painful and tedious process. (Seems like a great opportunity for someone to develop a nice GUI app that automates the replacement of app icons within .apk files for root users!) But again, enabling users to easily change app icons globally without root access is another one of those things that should simply be built into Android as a native capability.
I'm all for innovation, but it is a little disappointing that the Android devs re-invented the wheel for some of these basic features using new designs that just aren't as flexible and/or usable as existing models. One of the big advantages to creating a brand-new mobile OS like Android from a blank sheet of paper is the ability to learn from the past and innovate for the future.
