Questions about GNOME 3.2

[Kruger2147]

I just upgraded to 11.10 and installed gnome 3, this is the first time I'm using gnome 3.

I had a few basic questions.

How do I change my default/preferred applications?
- Is there a way so the default gnome calender app (when I click on the clock/ date) links to and shows my Google Calender?
- Or set it to read the Thunderbird-Google Calendar plugin?

When IMing on empathy all I ever see is the little notification pop-up. I can't seem to get it to show a regular messaging window. How do I do this?

Is there a way to use my keyboard/ hot keys to acknowledge/ reply/ select a notification popup? I don't like having to stop what I'm doing so I can mouse to the bottom of the screen and reply to an IM.

I use the application Pithos (Pandora app) in Unity it allows me to the touch buttons on my laptop to skip, go back, play and pause, but it won't let me in gnome 3. How can I fix this?

When I click on my name, and the drop down menu appears, what is "Online Accounts" I set up my Google (that's all it let me do), but nothing happened. What is it supposed to do?

There are some icons in the top bar i don't want/ never use (bluetooth and Accesibility) how do I delete them? And for that matter, how do I add/ delete icons from the top bar?

How do I get Thunderbird to run in the background so I don't have to manually start it and have it check for new mail?

How can I change the scroll wheel speed on my mouse.

If someone could also point towards a good GNOME 3 tutorial or walk through, that would be fantastic.

I know most of these are probably really simple, thank you for dealing with my newb-ness.