Apple’s Scary Fast October Mac event: How to watch and what to expect tonight

Surprise! Apple’s got one more event to go this year. Word is that various supply chain issues kiboshed plans to announce additional hardware at last month’s iPhone 15 event. Whereas in past years the company has opted to do a final round of announcements through press releases, this time out it’s holding a standalone event — happening tonight at 5PM PT/8PM ET.

The company sent out invites for Scary Fast October 24, leading to speculation that an October Apple event like this could signal the long-awaited release of new desktop silicon. The caveat, however, is that unlike the past few, there isn’t an in-person component. So, substantial news, but perhaps not substantial enough to ask folks to fly out from around the world.

The event is also unusual in its start time. Rather than the customary 10AM PT Tuesday morning, kickoff time is 5PM PT/8PM ET Monday night — All Hallows’ Eve eve, if you will. As ever, the quickest and easiest way to follow along (besides bookmarking TechCrunch, of course) is visiting Apple’s events page. As usual, Apple will also make the stream available via YouTube. That one tends to lag the other a bit, if such things matter to you.

As for what we’re expecting this time out, in addition to the obvious Halloween overtones, “Scary Fast” is most likely a reference to new chips. Meanwhile, both the silver Apple logo on the invite and the AR effect that transforms it into the Finder widget are strong indicators that we’re dealing with new Macs here.

Image Credits: Apple

So, the most logical headliners at the moment are a new 24-inch iMac, along with a MacBook Pro refresh, powered by the M3 and M3 Pro chips, respectively. Now, Apple is also reportedly working on a 32-inch iMac/iMac Pro, though word is that won’t launch until next year, at the earliest. But Apple does seem poised to belatedly celebrate macOS Sonoma’s arrival with some new hardware, regardless.

iPad could certainly get some love this time out. The Pro appears to be the most likely at the moment, but frankly the entire line is up for grabs this time out. This would also be a great opportunity to refresh a number of devices with USB-C connectors, just ahead of the holidays. It’s been nearly three (extremely long) years since the AirPods Max debuted.

Heck, any member of the line could follow in the footsteps of last month’s AirPods Pro 2 refresh. I’m also still holding out hope that standalone USB-C cases will be available at some point. Either way, it’s fair to expect that the event will be more than just Macs. Among other things, the Vision Pro barely got any stage time at the iPhone event. With its imminent arrival early next year, this would be the time to talk demos and debut more content.

We’ll see you — and Tim — tonight.