Apple’s Scary Fast October Mac event: What to watch and expect

Surprise! Apple has one more event this year. At last month’s iPhone 15 event, supply chain issues reportedly halted hardware announcements. This year, the company is holding a standalone event instead of press releases for its final announcements.

Last week’s Scary Fast invites raised hopes that an October event could signal the release of new desktop silicon. The difference from the others is that there is no in-person component. Thus, significant news, but perhaps not enough to warrant global flight.

Its start time is unusual too. Instead of 10AM PT Tuesday morning, kickoff is 5PM PT/8PM ET Monday night—All Hallows’ Eve. Apple’s events page is still the fastest and easiest way to follow along (besides bookmarking TechCrunch). As usual, Apple will stream on YouTube. That one lags behind the other, if that matters.

In addition to Halloween references, “Scary Fast” may refer to new chips. The silver Apple logo on the invite and the AR effect that turns it into the Finder widget indicate new Macs.

Thus, the most likely headlines are a new 24-inch iMac and a MacBook Pro refresh powered by the M3 and M3 Pro chips. A 32-inch iMac/iMac Pro is also in the works, but it won’t launch until next year. However, Apple may release new hardware to celebrate macOS Sonoma’s release.

iPad may get some love this time. The Pro seems most likely, but the entire line is up for grabs this time. This would also be a good time to update USB-C devices before the holidays. Nearly three years have passed since the AirPods Max debuted.

Any member of the line could update like last month’s AirPods Pro 2. I hope standalone USB-C cases will become available. Regardless, the event will likely feature more than Macs. At the iPhone event, the Vision Pro received little stage time. Discuss demos and release more content now since it’s coming early next year.