Newstand basically allowed a select bunch of newspapers to run their content on the glorious Apple machines, for a fee.

However like most things Applish, the set up was designed to suit Jobs' Mob. Apple controlled all the data, which was how the publishers' made money. Jobs' Mob also insisted on deciding how the magazines could be received and marketed. Subscriptions had to go through Apple, and it kept a 30 per cent cut. Every time. When loyal readers simply resubscribed Apple hassled them for money and it stuck publishers in its own folder.

In short Apple scared the publishers off and no one wanted to play with it any more.

In the end Apple worked out that treating the publishers like shit was not going to work any more and pulled the plug on the app.

Now it seems that Apple has learnt a bit from its mistakes. Susan Prescott, app product development veep, said that a new News app will be added to people's iPhones and iPads when they upgrade to iOS 9.

Apple has worked out it can't keep content out and expect to be successful. So it pulls in content not in its own format. It has also realized that it needs to provide content on a per-article rather than per-publication basis.

It is copied from the Flipboard app in that you can flip through website articles and tap to read them. The new software can pull in articles from across the internet.

However it seems that Jobs' Mob is still trying to control much of the content through its "Apple News format." Apple will try to drive subscriptions to those publishers that use the Apple format by offering specific "channels".

It has signed up the exact same people as it did when it launched Newsstand four years ago -- its favourites which advertise Apple such as the New York Times. Don't expect to see Fud there any time soon.