A dot bullet means there are more items below it, tap on it to expand.
List labels can be link themselves. To avoid navigating to an external link if you only wish to open it, tap the right-most part of the list (or the the grey square dot) to expand or collapse.
A circle bullet means it doesn't have any more items below it.
An italicized link is a link to another roll-up list.
A normal link text will take you to an external website.
Tap to expand and tap again or another item to collapse it.
The RETURN button, if it appears under the list page title, will take you to the parent list.
Yes, the list auto-scrolls (in some cases) to place the opened list item a line below the visible area. This behaviour isn't enabled in drill-down lists, like the Microsoft Downloads list.
