working for me with the new message button fixed. Make sure you have transition.ini settings correct (sets to defaults after update).
Now all modest needs is a fix for dialogues and modest will be perfect. (portrait wise anyway)

parallax is when you scroll across desktops and the icons scroll faster than the background, making the icons appear closer. a larger number in the transition.ini file for parallax and the faster the icons will move.

zoom press just does a quick little zoom out and back in again with you touch certain things, I'm assuming these things are to do with hildon-desktop (ie. when you touch the close button or touch the desktop background this is activated).
The effect this is supposed to give is that your pressing the screen into the device, or something like that.