
The Kindle hardware devices use an electronic paper display and download content over Amazon Whispernet using the Sprint EVDO network. Kindle hardware devices can be used without a computer, and Whispernet is accessible without any fee.These devices also provide free internet access to Wikipedia.
On March 3, 2009, Amazon.com launched an application entitled Kindle for iPhone in the App Store for iPhone and iPod Touch owners to read Kindle content. Through a technology termed "Whispersync," customers can keep their place across Kindle hardware devices and other mobile devices.
Users can download content from Amazon in the proprietary Kindle format (AZW), or load unprotected Mobipocket (PRC, MOBI) or plain text (TXT) content. Amazon offers an email-based service that will convert HTML, DOC, PDF, JPEG, GIF, PNG, and BMP documents to AZW.

Users can select reading material through the Kindle or through a computer at the Amazon Kindle store, and can download content through the Kindle Store. New releases and New York Times bestsellers are offered for approximately $10. Classics such as Bleak House sell for around $1.99. The first chapters of many books are offered as a free sample. Many titles, often classics now in the public domain, are offered for free. Subscriptions to newspapers cost between $5.99 and $14.99 per month, magazines between $1.25 and $3.49 per month, and blogs for $0.99-$1.99 per month. Users can send documents to a conversion service which will send a Kindle-formatted file to the device directly for $0.10 or to a personal email account for free.
The device comes with electronic editions of its owner's manual and the New Oxford American Dictionary. The Kindle also contains several free experimental features, including a basic Web browser. Users can also play music from MP3 files in random order in the background. Operating system updates are received over the air and installed automatically.