What is the little filter connected to the Valve Cover? it looks almost like a mini-cone filter. i noticed its in place of where a hose used to be? what does this mean?

 

That used to run to your intake tube with hosing, and just breathes.

 

so the advantage is? if i have a cold air intake, wouldn't the stock hose be better because it sucks up cold air as opposed to hot air from the engine bay?

 

its an emissions control system(pcv(positive crankcase ventilation)) basically when you get blow by from your piston rings you get that build up of gases(hydrocarbons mainly) in your crankcase and your engine and basically what they used to do is vent all these to atmosphere but with new emissions regulations they now feed those gases back into the intake system where they are burnt with everything else, basically the stock is better if you like to lower emissions from cars(i ASSUME not many here care about that sort of stuff) so all your doing is feeding HC's out into the open air and i guess wasting fuel(cos now that youve thrown it out you cant burn it cos HC's are unburnt fuel)

hope that answers your q' -
- also basically there is no advantage to removing it just wastes fuel and damages the enviro and also you lose oil through the filter, which clogs it and increases back pressure inside your engine which is bad lol and the rest just goes over your shiny red top!!!