Oh lots of questions.. I'll try answer as best I can..

I really don't know a lot about this. I have prior love/hate relationship with Aegis. One of my first projects with the N950 was a sms pet feeder (don't hate me, I'm into physical computing) where the app, running on the N950, would process an incoming SMS message and if it found the trigger word would turn on a DIY pet feeder via arduino over Bluetooth. The idea is I can feed the dogs when im late from work. Those of you who followed my project at the start of the year will know I spent a week of my life thumping my head of a wall because I didnt have the Aegis TrackerReadAccess token right. So anything that abuses Aegis gets a virtual thumbs up from me

However, your question was in regards to what is acceptable for this competition. Which leads me onto the following ...

I admire your pioneering spirit itsnotabigtruck, but it's not strictly true that we'll accept anything into the competition. We're pretty liberal in most areas, and we don't take moral issues with things like emulators etc. We want to accept most stuff into the competition because we want to recognise all development out there in the community, and we understand that most of the cool stuff pushes the boundaries sometimes. However, we can't just accept anything. Here's the thought process:

• Any application that contains illegal content, is a virus, or has a malicious intent is out. I'm sure few of us will disagree with that.
  
• Similarly, there are copyright issues the application needs to adhere to. For example, we can accept emulator submissions but not ones that are bundled with a commercial ROM. That keeps our noses clean.
  
• Will your application invalid warranty? This is probably not a worry for most N900 owners, but may be for N9 owners. We are all adults here and can decide what applications we will or will not install on our devices. Such applications can be submitted, but must be accompanied with a note or warning that it will/possibly invalidate the warranty. This will be placed in the application description so that all users are aware of this risk before trying the application out.
  
• Similarly, is there a chance your application will brick the device? If so, this also needs to be made clear to us so we can pass that information on to the users/testers.
  
• The above points about warranty and bricking may seem a little heavy handed. We know from experience that users will install things without going to the applications TMO discussion thread or googling for more information about it. You have to remember we have users of varying experience and technical skills in our community, and the competition is for everyone. We need to make these risks clear.
  
• Your application should be straightforward to install, and should be straightforward to remove. There should be reasonably defined steps for installation and removal, and it should remove cleanly from the device. Let us remember you for the right reasons, not cos you clogged up our Opt folders with stuff left behind that we have to manually remove by hand..
  
• We're expecting your application to be well tested before it's submitted, so you're confident it does what it's supposed to do, it matches with the description, and there's no nasty surprises for the users. There will be time after submission for fairly minor bug fixes, however new functionality after the close of submission will not be accepted for the competition. If the application is just a train wreck and won't run then obviously we'll not include it in the competition.

That's all I think of off the top of my head. I understand that within the above points there will be grey areas, there always are, but I hope I've conveyed the spirit of what is acceptable. Most of it is common sense. We'll try to include everything we can and let the community decide what is most valuable to them. We want to showcase the talent out there and rewards developers who have given so much to the community. In return, we ask that submissions are legal, safe, and as risk free to our users as possible. It's tricky to be absolute on generalities, so we can work with developers on clearing up specific issues if/when the case arises during the competition.

I have no idea what the post limit is for characters, i must be nearly hitting it.. I'll grab a new post for the next bunch of stuff