While my guess it that no, it doesn t violate the HIGS (they use both of my suggestions below in different apps, themselves), you never can tell with Apple!
Background color can be good for such things, depending upon the nature of the table.
Another choice is to have a bullet which can be in three states:
- absent
- unfilled circle
- filled circle
Example here is the Podcasts in your iPod: they start out full, then go to partially full once the podcast is partially played, then go away once you ve listened to it to the end.
alt text http://www.me.com/ro/bencox76/Galleries/100014/Security%20Now%20Screen/web.jpg?ver=12579803280001
However, in this case you have two different meanings you are trying to convey. I might combine them - maybe full circle on unvisited rows, no circle on visited, and a special background color on new ones?
Good luck!