American Kate Upton, age 19, is the second youngest model to cover the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. In 2011 she was named SI‘s Rookie of the Year, and this year the teenage blonde bombshell was upgraded to cover model status. Guys, I know, too many words. Inch your eyes below and open the gallery to view more pics from the photoshoot, then dash after the break to watch video.

How does Upton compare to the previous Swimsuit Issue cover girls Brooklyn Decker and Irina Shayk? Sound off in the comment section below, that is, if you ever figure out how Upton managed to keep her breasts inside that top made for a toddler.

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Rapper Kid Cudi finds himself on the cover of Complex Magazine for the third time in so many years. In this latest cover story interview with Complex editor-in-chief Noah Callahan-Bever, Cudi opens up about his murky past consisting of drinking and smoking, how things have changed for the better managing a sober lifestyle, and the inspiration behind playing guitar and forming the Wizard album. You can read the interview in full right here; below I’ve copied a couple of standout moments.

When asked about why he spend so much time with fellow rapper Kanye West: “I was at another place, another dark place. Me and my girl had broken up. I wasn’t fully healed yet. And being around Kanye and music was my escape. He’s a sober guy, he has a drink every once in a while, but seeing how he throws himself into the studio when he’s stressing about something, I totally admire that. Being around that was therapy for me.”

When asked to look two years into the future: “I’m always going to be working on something because I have too many ideas. Every day I come up with some wild fucking idea, some type of scheme. I feel like I have a purpose and if I don’t create then I’m letting myself down. I’ve been given this opportunity for people to listen to me worldwide. I’m just gonna fucking keep rocking and keep rocking and keep rocking until I’m in a wheelchair somewhere.”

Browse pictures from the photoshoot below, and watch some behind-the-scenes action after the break.

[Via Complex; DatNewCudi] (Click here for more…)

Russian-born 25-year-old Irina Shayk follows Brooklyn Decker as the next cover model of the always anticipated Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. Shayk was discovered in 2004 and this marks her fifth appearance in the Swimsuit Issue. Shayk, who claims to work out five times a week (um, I believe it), is currently dating soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo. Enough words, am I right? Gaze at the SI cover above, then browse through the gallery of images below. The video (sitting after the break) goes behind-the-scenes of her photoshoot in the Philippines. And there’s more where all this came from; head over to Shayk’s main SI page for even more pics and vids.

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The man behind the social network has been crowned TIME’s Person of the Year “for connecting more than half a billion people and mapping the social relations among them, for creating a new system of exchanging information and for changing how we live our lives.”  Click here to read the 10-page cover article.  Zuck beat out the trapped Chilean Miners, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, Afghanistan’s president Hamid Karzai, and The Tea Party.

The zine also named the top ten albums and songs of the year.  Here’s what they had to say about the #1 album, Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy: “Kanye West can seem like an attention-hungry young child who constantly tugs on his mother’s pant leg, saying, “Watch this! Watch this!” But once Kanye got our attention, instead of a simple somersault, he delivered the musical equivalent of a one-handed back handspring.”  Cee Lo Green’s “F**k You” is Time’s #1 song.  Look after the break to see the full listing of TIME’s top ten albums and songs.

Other TIME Top 10 things worth noting: in the Top 10 TV Series category they included Parks and Rec, Party Down, and Boardwalk Empire; in the Top 10 TV episodes they included Community‘s “Modern Warfare”, Lost‘s “The End”, and Fringe‘s “Peter” (!).  Really digging the selection here.  The Social Network and Toy Story 3 are listed in the Top 10 Movies category, Angry Birds is a top video game, and Merton on Chatroulette, Bed Intruder, and Double Rainbow are favorite viral videos.  Again, look after the break to see the full listings from all of these categories to see if your favorites made the cut.  Or you can opt to head over to TIME to view many other Top 10 categories ranging from popular toys to scientific discoveries.

[Via TIME, here & here] (Click here for more…)

To call the GQ photoshoot featuring Glee cast members Lea Michele, Dianna Agron, and Cory Monteith provocative is sort of an understatement.  The racy shoot has stirred some controversy this week.  Members of the Parents Television Council calls it a “near-pornographic display”.  PTC President Tim Winter says, “It is disturbing that GQ, which is explicitly written for adult men, is sexualizing the actresses who play high school-aged characters on Glee in this way.  It borders on pedophilia.”  Shortly after the PTC rage surfaced GQ issued a statement defending the spread.  “The Parents Television Council must not be watching much TV these days and should learn to divide reality from fantasy.  As often happens in Hollywood, these ‘kids’ are in their twenties. Cory Montieth’s almost 30! I think they’re old enough to do what they want.”  That is so true.  Montieth is 28, the especially sexy Michele is 24, as is Agron.  These adults can certainly do whatever they so choose.  And that’s the way Sue C’s it.  Now open the gallery below and flick through some sexy Glee goodness.  And if you like words, too, click here to read the zine article.

[Via GQ; EW; Deadline]

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In the October issue of Complex Magazine Kid Cudi opens up to his fans by journeying back to his not-so-distant dark past.  Beyond opening up about his heavy drug use, his night in jail, and the big reveal that he has a daughter, Cudder talks about his competition (or lack thereof), the meaning behind the tracks “REVOFEV”, “Wylin’ ‘Cause I’m Young”, “Erase Me”, and “Mr. Rager”, and the encompassing theme behind his upcoming second studio album Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager (11/9).

On why he opted to create another dark album, instead of making a fun collab: “When I started making records like “Erase Me.” I wanted this album to be fun, but the dark sh– was my life at that time. I was fighting not to write that sh–. It got frustrating writing a collab album—I just lost interest, and it became more of a task, rather than something I wanted to do. That’s not how it’s supposed to feel. The day it becomes work, you need to retire.”

On MOTM2: “I want my sh– to be like you’re reading a novel, not a Dr. Seuss book. I felt like the last album was too short. This one is a little bit longer, it’s 18 tracks and counting. It’s just ten times better on all levels. The story’s deeper, darker, with no holding back. It’s beautiful, man. It’s an emotional album.”

Head over to Complex to read the explicit three page interview.  Look in the gallery below for some stills from the photoshoot and after the break to find a behind-the-scenes video.

[Via DatNewCudi; Complex]

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Kanye West is featured in the October issue of XXL magazine.  In addition to gracing the cover wearing his signature heavy chain, Kanye penned his very first article for the magazine and was the creative director of a 40 page section of the special collector’s issue.  In his article “The Exclusive Story by the Man Himself” Kanye sheds light on the publicisized and highly critisized Taylor Swift incident from last year’s MTV VMAs.  Popeater managed to pluck out some choice quotes from the article.

“I stress that the incident wasn’t about Taylor personally. And it definitely wasn’t about race. Where I messed up is, at the end of the day, it’s your show, Taylor. It’s your show, MTV.”

“The relationship with the public and with your fans is like the relationship with your girlfriend. How could I not, at a certain point, be like, ‘I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have been at the awards show. I’m sorry.’ Not that I don’t deserve to get beat up or change who I am inside, to make sure that that doesn’t happen again.”

“I knew I wasn’t in a great spot publicly after the incident, but I would just block it out and work as hard as possible and let my work be my saving grace. In a way, I had thrown a Molotov cocktail at my own career, and it gave me an opportunity, for the first time, to go away and find out who I was. Because I felt very alone.”

Ohh, dark stuff huh?  You can pick up the October issue of XXL on September 28.  The zine also includes stoires on Kid Cudi, Kanye’s G.O.O.D. Music label, and the top 10 producers-turned-rappers of all time.

[Via Popeater; XXL]

True Blood stars Alexander Skarsgard, Anna Paquin, and Stephen Moyer posed nude covered in fake blood for the next issue of Rolling Stone, set to hit newsstands August 20.  I have yet to start watching the HBO hit, but from what I’m told it quickly turned into crazy sexy vampire porn.  If that’s the case I’d say this cover is fitting, wouldn’t you?

[Via zap2it]

Director Greg Williams is at it again, this time shooting for UK’s version of Esquire Magazine.  (Previously we’ve seen Greg’s work with Megan Fox and Kate Beckinsale for US’ Esquire Mag.)  Per usual, he uses a super hi-def RED camera, this time with a MX Sensor, to shoot video of covergirl Daisy Lowe that will eventually be converted into stills to use for her spread in the July issue of the zine.  Lowe is a 21-year-old English fashion model.  Watch her prance around in the video above, and check out a handful of the resulting stills in the gallery below.  [This goes without saying but the video and images are NSFW.]

[Stills via egotastic]

Back in the ’50s Hef assigned a photographer to shoot two nude women in 3D; but since it was so expensive to include the 3D glasses at the time the idea was scrapped.  Come this June, however, Hef’s dream will finally become a reality.  The June edition of Playboy will hit newsstands bundled with a new surprise: 3D glasses!  Playboy founder Hugh Hefner: “What would people most like to see in 3-D?  Probably a naked lady.”  Centerfold Hope Dworaczyk will pop out to readers using the packaged anaglyph (blue-and-red) 3D shades.  Says Dworaczyk, “It’s kind of like it says on the rearview mirror.  Things may appear larger.”  From having Marge Simpson as a centerfold to making the centerfold come off the page in 3D, Playboy is trying its darndest to stay relevent and different.  Circulation of Hef’s magazine has decreased from 3.5 million in 2006 to 1.5 million today.  Though I can’t imagine the addition of 3D in Playboy help sales, it surely will be a treat for long-time subscribers.

[Via MSNBC; Gizmodo]

Every year TIME Magazine puts together a list of “the people who most affect our world.”  People are sorted into the following categories: leaders, heroes, artists, thinkers, and the TIME 100 Alumnae.  Some notable names include… Leaders- Barack Obama, Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, and Scott Brown; Heroes- Bill Clinton, Ben Stiller, Phil Mickelson, Jet Li, and Serena Williams; Artists- Lady Gaga, Conan O’Brien, Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker!), Neil Patrick Harris (Dr.H!), Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindelof (Lost!), Lea Michelle (Glee!), Neill Blomkamp (District 9!), Ricky Gervais, and James Cameron (Avatar!); Thinkers- Steve Jobs (Apple!) and Sonia Sotomayor.  Head over to the official website to find the full listing; you can click on every person’s name to read more about them.  There’s also a list of the Least Influential People of 2010 if you’re interested in that, too.

[Via Time]

Shot by fashion photographer Nathaniel Goldberg, the ads features ‘real people’ rather than models, and contain the new Evian strapline: Live Young.

I’m really diggin’ Evian’s latest ad campaign.  Nice addition to this masterpiece.  More photos in the gallery below.

[Via IBelieveInAdvertising]

Imagine this: In the future magazine stands will be interactive on the consumer-end and communicative with your portable tablet computer.  Cynergy’s magazine kiosk concept bring that future to life today.  Using a Microsoft Surface table and proprietary software, Cynergy created a highly intuitive and seemless way to preview and purchase magazines on the go.  As you can see in the video above, it’s as simple as this: You go up to one of these “public” tables and browse a full library of magazines and sort them by category, popularity, etc.  Once you find something you’re interested in, you tap the cover to view its table of contents and preview it.  When you’re ready to buy a digital version of it, you place down your tablet device (that’s running Cynergy’s “custom designed and built” software) onto the table and it’s instantly recognized.  Your name and credit amount pops up on screen.  To take the magazine with you, simply drag and drop the zine’s cover from the Surface to your tablet.  (The visuals during this part are very neat; the zine actually appears to move from the table to the tablet without hiccup).  And now you own the magazine; it’s sitting in your digital (print) media collection on your tablet.  I can totally see something like this being implemented for tablets like the iPad and (future) color screen e-readers.  Look after the break for a second demo.

[Via BusinessInsider; Gizmodo; Engadget]

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With the release of the iPad soon upon us, companies are scrambling to show off their latest content made specifically for the iPad and other tablet devices.  Here we have VIV Magazine giving us a sneak peek into how their zine spreads of the future will look like.  In the video above VIV examples how an article about ‘five common sex fears’ would look like on a tablet.  It’s full of stunning visuals and begs for user interactivity. [Looks like they took that video down.  It's been replaced with the second video.] In the second video above, Alexx Henry Photography explains that VIV is a completely digital magazine, so they’re able to “put motion into print where we weren’t able to before.”  And don’t mix this up with what you see in the movies: “In the end we aren’t making moving pictures.  We’re creating pictures that move.”  Bring on the print media revolution!

[Via AlexxHenry; Gizmodo]

John Makinson, CEO of book publisher Penguin, unveiled to a crowd this week his vision for the iPad and how be plans on pushing “books” and other content to it.  I say “books” because these demos look more like applications to me.  In fact, Makinson says, “for the time being at least we’ll be creating a lot of our digital content as applications for sales in app stores in HTML, rather than as ebooks.  The definition of a book itself, as you can see, is up for grabs.”  As demonstrated in the video above, Penguin plans on bringing children’s books with support for embeddable sound, touch interactivity, and accelerometer (shaking/tilting) implementation; interactive textbooks (human anatomy, shown here); an “online community for vampire lovers” (OK?); a travel companion with an itinerary and maps; and lastly a far-out “intergalactic GPS system” that uses the GPS chip and augmented reality to reveal star constellations when you point the device to the sky.  That last one will likely remain a concept for a while.  It’s good to see a company really looking ahead into the future of print/digital media.  The iPad has the power to do these things; it’s up to the developers (here, book publishers) to make it happen.  ‘Nother video of Makinson speaking to the crowd about his ideas after the break.

Watching these demos makes me wish I had a kid so I could buy him an iPad and watch him interact and learn in ways I never imagined were possible when I was a toddler.

[Via PaidContent; Gizmodo]

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So this is what Wired is going to look like on the iPad.  Pretty cool, huh?  Wired teamed up with Adobe to create Wired Reader, a digital version of the real-life magazine.  The UI looks stunning and the back-and-forth between pages, images, and video is very fluid.  It runs on top of Adobe’s AIR app, allowing developers to easily convert the Reader to run on other mobile devices and even the PC or Mac.  Will the iPad revolutionize the print media industry?  Hard evidence like this points towards a resounding “yes.”

[Via Wired]

Rapper Kid Cudi is one of 30 “Most Stylish New Yorkers” featured in the latest issue of Time Out New York.  If you’re interested in his inspirations, where he shops, and his favorite designers click here to read the interview.  Check out the gallery below for a crop of images from the photoshoot, and look after the break for a behind-the-scenes video from the shoot.

[Via DatNewCudi, here & here; KanyeBlog]

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DAMN.  This year’s Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover model is g-g-gorgeous.  Her name’s Brooklyn Decker, she’s 22, and this is her fifth appearence in a Swimsuit Issue.

Check out a handful of pics from the photoshoot in the gallery below, and take a gander at the behind-the-scenes video.  Click here for more pictures and video.

[Via SI]

Rihanna graces the January cover of GQ Magazine, and it seems that she forgot to wear a top.  Fine by me.  In the GQ interview she talks about her split with abusive ex Chris Brown.  “It’s relieving because it was built up for so long, and all these thoughts and emotions have been running through my mind for the past eight months.  And now it’s like I finally get to let go and move on.”  She also says, “I wanted people to move on with me.”  Oh, I’m moving on with you alright.  I mean…your new album Rated R is great!  Check out an additional (and even more revealing) shot of Rihanna in the gallery below.

[Via EW; Huffinton Post]

The publishers at Popular Magazine have joined the digital revolution in print media with their rendition of a concept tablet device displaying their magazine in a digitized form.  PopSci publisher Bonnier teamed up with design agency BERG to create this mock tablet called Mag+ that does its best to recreate the magazine in a digital environment.  Bonnier joins Time Inc.’s Sports Illustrated and Conde Nast’s Wired in the movement towards a digital future for magazines.  If this is indeed the future for magazines and even newspapers, I say bring it on.  Technology and interactivity could be long sought solution for keeping print media alive in a digital age ruled by the Internet.

[Via Gizmodo]