The only way this is going to happen is if Apple lets it. However, i think it should do this for the fortieth anniversary of the Apple ][ in five or six years' time.
Now for the idea:
A small Blackberry-style device with a keyboard and non-touch sensitive TFT display with the same display resolution as the Apple ][. There is a microphone and speaker, and all the usual hardware for a mobile telephone, though a very basic one. This can be used for voice calls or as a twelve hundred baud full duplex modem. Nothing more than that though. There is flash memory inside the device storing a number of ancient classic applications for the Apple such as Visicalc and AppleWriter along with the kind of things you get on a basic mobile 'phone such as a calculator, alarm and so forth, plus space for data or programs the user might want to add. The modem part of the functionality can be used to communicate with other ][Phones and also with the Apple iPhone itself via an app on the iPhone.
Everything about the device other than the peripherals i've described, which are of course way more powerful than the Apple itself, is like the original. It runs Applesoft Basic and a monitor program when you turn it on (via a key on the keyboard), has the requisite version of Apple DOS (not to be confused with MSDOS or PCDOS of course), no sound commands, text, low-res and high-res graphics and everything the original computer came with. Any new apps on it are used via an unambitious and not very user-friendly interface, not Contiki or GEOS. Something akin to texting is possible directly between ][Phones, and genuine texting via the app on the iPhone, and there is text-only web browsing. Single-channel square wave music files can be played via a program in the flash memory, images can be viewed either zoomed in to the appropriate resolution or highly pixelated, in six colours, using a program which converts JPEGs, GIFs or, preferably, just displays RLE'd or plain bitmapped image files.
The whole device should be beige, with the original Apple styling, made using the same plastic, with the ventilation slits and the original Apple logo on it, along with the original Apple typeface on the keys.-- nineteenthly, May 01 2012 iBaker-lite (TM).-- 4whom, May 01 2012 Will the "Big Gold Bar" switchmode PSU still go BANG if it is powered on without a load ?-- 8th of 7, May 04 2012 Would the case also be designed to give the internal circuitry a smack if opened carelessly?-- oscil8, May 05 2012 [nineteenthly], this is guaranteed to fail, in the court of public opinion and therefore demand. I think I see the reason you don'y have many...-- UnaBubba, May 05 2012 Whereas it doubtless reflects something about my personality, you also have to remember that this place is not the real world.-- nineteenthly, May 06 2012 the real world isn't the real world either.-- FlyingToaster, May 06 2012 Reality is subjective.-- Alterother, May 06 2012 But, subjectivity is real.-- pocmloc, May 06 2012 Subjectivity is a circumstantial abstract.-- Alterother, May 06 2012 <muttering>
…Copenhagen interpretation … no deep reality … reality is created by observation…
</muttering>-- 8th of 7, May 06 2012 Real observation or just simulated observation?-- AusCan531, May 06 2012 Subjective obsversation, of course.-- Alterother, May 07 2012 Thass jus' your Subjective obsversation, Ossifer.-- AusCan531, May 07 2012 no relation to the ee-phone?-- not_morrison_rm, May 07 2012 I would appreciate it if people would stop using these crass abbreviations. It is called a “telephone”. At least if abbreviating is completely unavoidable, please use an apostrophe. Thank you.-- pocmloc, May 07 2012 As it happens, i always use an apostrophe.-- nineteenthly, May 07 2012 >As it happens, i always use an apostrophe
Can't afford 'em meself, it's the cutbacks. Wanders away wondering why one "apo-" and another one "cata-"-- not_morrison_rm, May 08 2012 That's because Greek prepositions exist in a R'lyeh-like semantic space, where metaphors extend in more dimensions than one normally likes to contemplate.-- pertinax, May 08 2012 Ah, now that brings me to my other thing, which i will now post.-- nineteenthly, May 08 2012 random, halfbakery