That Kindle 2 — we love it, especially for reading books without pictures. But for magazines, blogs and newspapers, color is essential, and that's where this Fujitsu FLEPia e-book reader represents a breakthrough, towering over all the rest. Shipping in Japan April 20 (and who-knows-when to the U.S.), it's the world's first color e-book reader. But there's one major drawback: It costs $1000. Ouch. And we thought the Kindle's $359 price was too high.

Those big bucks buy bountiful features, with an 8-inch screen on a unit that's a mere 12.5mm thick, 260,000 colors on a 768 x 1,014 high-def touchscreen, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity (but no 3G like the Kindle), and an SD card slot that'll let you store 5,000 e-books.

The color e-paper screen was designed by Fujitsu, and the company says the tech has improved since early samples were demonstrated, with higher contrast and faster redraws. This "mobile terminal," as Fujitsu calls it, is off to an auspicious start, perhaps with enough mojo to goose Amazon into creating a color Kindle for its next reader.

Fujitsu, via Crave