The Signal is a daily column that brings you the five things you need know from the world of mobile.
Volvo Offers 1 Month Free MLB App Streaming: Got an iPhone, iPad, or Android device and want to catch all the MLB streaming action? Volvo is giving you one month free if you’re an iPhone or iPad user or one game free per day with Android. The MLB.tv streaming service normally costs $100-125 per season and the app itself costs $15 (and isn’t universal between iPhone and iPad), so saving one month is definitely worth it. The downside? The MLB app changes every season, so you’re looking at a minimum of a $15 investment even to try that free month. GigaOM
Photoshop Coming to iPad: Continuing the trend of showing the iPad as a creation tool instead of simply a consumption device, Adobe has started to show off their Photoshop iPad app. The video looks fantastic for an image-editing tool that would appeal to someone like me who can’t even draw stick figures. The downside: last I checked everyone who professionally uses Photoshop primarily uses keyboard shortcuts, which this app definitely lacks. Perhaps you can configure some based on certain multitouch gestures someday. Cult of Mac
No Source Code, No Apps: Google’s Honeycomb-focused App Market has only 50 apps on it and 15 of them have been available since the launch of the Xoom 30 days ago. While some of the apps are just re-sized versions of their mobile counterparts, most developers seem to be holding off to offer a true tablet experience. With Google still not opening up the software development kit for Honeycomb, can we expect the market to grow, or is the real issue the lack of hardware out there that can support it? Ars Technica
Android NFC Campaign in London 2012 Olympics: Wasn’t the idea of near-field communication to make thing seamless for everyone? If you thought QR codes were a headache, wait for the bad wrap NFC is going to get from this. If you’re at the event, you’ll have the option to either use your existing NFC Android device by placing a sim card from Visa into it or you can purchase the Olympic branded phone that Samsung will release. This sounds like a lot of effort when all you need to do to purchase something at the Olympics otherwise is to simply hand them your credit card. Or I hear cash works too. ReadWriteWeb
Google Licensing Gets Strict: Fragmentation is now a reality with Android, and it looks like they’re going to fix that. Andy Rubin, head of Android, is now the final word on whether or not their tweaks are allowed. This will definitely help the fragmentation, but it will slow down the process and make it ever harder for those lower on the totem pole to get clearance from Google in time to be competitive. With the Amazon Appstore being the first, Is this the second nail in Android’s open coffin? BusinessWeek
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