Do you mean zooming with the browser?
There's 2 ways to zoom in on the text. Firstly you can just tap on a section of text and that will zoom in a fair bit, though perhaps still a bit small to read on a phone.
The "pinch to zoom" thing is just how it's described, you literally do a pinching motion on the glass. Obviously you won't actually pinch it, because it's smooth glass and your fingers will just slide across, but that's the basic method.
To zoom out you do the opposite motion, again placing 2 fingers on the screen, but instead of pinching them together you spread your fingers apart.
If you can find a friend doing it then having seen it once you'll soon get the hang of it!
Regarding apps, the Android Market is the best place to get them, and probably the best place to look first. Don't presume though that because it's there it's safe - Google doesn't vet the apps very much.
For updating, your phone company (mine is HTC) will probably send you the update automatically. In fact that's why I'm here, as I'm trying to put my phone back as it was before the update messed things up....
