
after you click "New Material" you will have this screen pop up

here, you can edit it's color, reflection, transparency (and refraction for glass type materials), "bump" (a picture that will embed itself into the object, like diamond plate, tread for tires, etc.), glow (a light bulb), fog, and other goodies. Try them all out!
to put the material on to your object, simply click and drag it onto the object's name. then it will look like this:

then after your render your item, you will see the very little details for your object! like so:
