It's ceramic tile, and part of the question was "I don't particulary want to mess around with mixing cement. Is there a producr I can use that comes out of a tin"?
If you're doing wall tiles, there are adhesives that come in a big tub with a tight fitting lid that is pre mixed and about the consistency of shortening. You don't need as thick a layer of it and this is good at sticking on those vertical surfaces. Thinset/versabond is a chemical and cement kind of mix that will also work on walls (I've seen it done) but mostly used on floors. The bags are heavy and you need a good solid large bucket, a gallon measure (I just marked off lines for quarts on an old vinegar gallon jug) and a stirrer, like the five-gallon paint sticks they give away at Home Depot. For the second step of wiping up off of any tile surfaces you'll need a sharp tool of some sort to get the adhesive out of the little trough where you'll run your grout and a bucket of water and a big sponge to wipe any adhesive off of the top of the tiles.
PUT THE WATER IN THE BUCKET FIRST, and don't put too much. You'd be surprised how little water it takes to moisten the thinset properly. Depending on how much you're doing at a time, if you mix up enough thinset that is moistened by a quart or two, that's going to cover several square yards of tile. You need to pour in the water, then pour in enough of the versabond (what I prefer) and mix it promptly. If it's a little runny you can add more dry as long as not to much time has passed. It sets up some after you've mixed it together so it needs to be a little moister than the perfect mixing consistency when you finish mixing. After a few minutes if you give it another mix you'll find it is just "fluffy" enough to scoop on the trowel and work with the tools.
Always wash out everything completely at the end of the day, rinse the cement off of all of your tools, out of the bucket, and clean up and drips or drops.
They offer free classes most weekends at Home Depot in these kinds of projects. I use a wet saw to cut my tiles, but I also have various nippers and a tile cutter. I did about 1500sf of floor in my house plus the kitchen backsplashes and the shower surrounds (with lovely Mexican tile) in both bathrooms. The bucket of white adhesive was used on those wall tiles.