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

Image Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images (Photo by TechCrunch)

Surprise! Apple has one more event this year. Word was that various supply chain issues planned to announce additional hardware at last month’s iPhone 15 event. In past years, the company has opted to make its final round of announcements through press releases, and this time it’s holding a full-fledged event—tonight. 5PM PT/8PM ET.

The company sent out invitations for Scary Fast October 24, leading to speculation that an October Apple event like this would mark the long-awaited release of new desktop silicon. The caveat, however, is that unlike the last few, there are no individual components. So, substantial news, but not substantial enough to ask people to leave the entire world.

The event was also unusual in its timing. Tuesday morning instead of the usual 10AM PT, kickoff time 5PM PT/8PM ET Monday night – All Hallows Eve, if you will. As always, the quickest and easiest way to follow along (besides bookmarking TechCrunch of course) is to visit Apple Events page. As usual, Apple Stream is also available via YouTube. If things like that are important to you, the other one will be a little behind.

As for what we’re expecting this time around, in addition to the obvious Halloween overtones, “Scary Fast” could be hints at new chips. Meanwhile, the silver Apple logo on the invite and the AR effect that turns it into a Finder widget are both strong indicators that we’re dealing with a new Mac here.

Image Credit: Apple

So, the most logical headliners at the moment are a new 24-inch iMac and a MacBook Pro refresh, powered by the M3 and M3 Pro chips, respectively. Now, Apple is said to be working on a 32-inch iMac/iMac Pro, though it won’t launch until next year, at the earliest. But it looks like Apple is ready to belatedly celebrate the arrival of macOS Sonoma with some new hardware.

The iPad can definitely get some love this time around. The Pro seems the most viable at the moment, but apparently the entire line is up for grabs this time around. Ahead of the holidays, this would be a great opportunity to update more devices with USB-C connectors. It’s been almost three (very long) years since the AirPods Max debuted.

Heck, any member of the lineup could follow in the footsteps of last month’s AirPods Pro 2 update. I’m still hopeful that standalone USB-C cases will be available at some point. In any case, it’s reasonable to expect the event to exceed Max. Among other things, the Vision Pro didn’t get any stage time at the iPhone event. With its imminent arrival early next year, it will be time to talk demos and introduce more content.

See you and Tim tonight.