website upgrade

I am looking for an upgrade of our current Joomla website. - currently 1.5.x would like to go to the latest 3.1 (also make sure it works with mobile devices) - I would like the custom graphics on main page to be converted to latex html 5 so that mobile devices such as iPad or iPhone can also view, original template purchased from Siteground, perhaps new template may be necessary or modifications to current - i'd like to create a template or use better module for posting our portfolio photos and descriptions to be easier to manage and post online with in-house staff - background text is too light - would like main page to be not so long, perhaps stories continue with a "read more" so it is more presentable - i have spent time doing organic seo but would look for some suggestions on doing it better - verify my akeeba backup is working, upgrade to the latest - would like to create a custom application that a user can input data for a few fields and it would query an api at another site to return information - i have additional websites that will need work