Yes, we're aware we used the same adjective twice, and truth be told, we'd be justified in using it two more times. No offense to designer Robert Potter, but his prototype ear cushions, while perhaps practical in certain situations, are too much of an eyesore to warrant a shipping product.

Of course, opinions are like...you know how the rest of that goes. Point being, just because we don't find Potter's "Earos" attractive doesn't mean there won't be someone else who does. The ear cushions, which we spied on Yanko Design's website, are designed to slip over your mobile phone and provide a bit of comfort for extended chats.

"Earos provides a convenient padding to your ear when you use it with your mobile phone," Yanko Design writes. "It fastens to any phone and even doubles up as a axdisplay stand, when used in reverse position. A convenient fastener hooks it up to most phone models. It rotates on two axies, so that the ear pad can be repositioned in a jiffy, allowing access to the display. It looks to be a comfortable addition to the phone, especially if you are the sort to talk on it for long. Ears really tend to heat up fast, and Earos can be a good barrier!"

Plenty more pictures to gawk at right here.

It may have taken two years, but the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office finally approved a patent Apple filed in 2008 which sought to prevent users from sending or receiving "objectionable" text messages.

The patent doesn't use the term "sexting," however it's no secret that's what Apple was after. Here's how the patent reads:

"In one embodiment, the control application includes a parental control application. The parental control application evaluates whether or not the communication contains approved text based on, for example, objective ratings criteria or a user’s age or grade level, and, if unauthorized, prevents such text from being included in the text-based communication.

If the control contains unauthorized text, the control application may alert the user, the administrator or other designated individuals of the presence of such text. The control application may require the user to replace the unauthorized text or may automatically delete the text or the entire communication."

In other words, Apple just patented the censoring of text messages. But will it work as intended? If you've ever read a teenage text message, then you already know they speak a language all their own. Good luck to whatever algorithm is used to try and decipher covert sexting.

Read the full patent here.

Facebook was quick to deny rumors that it's working on a mobile phone. After catching wind of a TechCrunch story on late Saturday night / early Sunday morning that the social networking site is "building the software for the phone and working with a third party to actually build the hardware," a Facebook PR jumped in to kill the speculation.

Straight and to the point, the PR dude said the report "is not accurate," adding "Facebook is not building a phone." End of story, right?

Perhaps so, but TechCrunch isn't convinced, who points out that Google also denied it wasn't working on a Google Phone prior to the Nexus One launch. And technically, if Facebook is pinging a third-party developer to construct the device, then it wouldn't be lying for the social networking giant to say that it's "not building a phone", but that's splitting hairs.

A House Judiciary subcommittee on Thursday passed the Cell Tax Fairness Act of 2009, a bipartisan bill designed to ban new state or local taxes on mobile phones for the next five years. As it stands, cell phone customers pay on average over 15 percent in taxes on their wireless service, compared to about 7 percent on other taxable goods, according to Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.).

"While family members are forced into paying more money, out-of-pocket, to communicate with one another, these predatory taxes are often squandered on projects that have little to do with improving the communications network," an advocate group called the National Taxpayers Union wrote in a letter earlier this year.

What the bill won't do is affect current taxes, ban new federal taxes, or apply to fees that subsidize emergency 911 services and contributions to the Universal Service Fund.

"The Cell Tax Fairness Act does not take away any existing revenue for state or local governments, it simply calls for a period of tax stabilization," Lofgren said.

The bill seems destined to go through. It has the support of the entire wireless industry, particularly Verizon, which is pushing to have it passed before Congress goes on recess for the midterm elections.

More here.