What to expect from Apple’s unexpected ‘Scary Fast’ evening event tonight

Time moves fast. Scary fast, you could say. A week ago, we didn’t expect there to be a second fall Apple event this year. Now we’re wading through what to expect from Apple’s surprise Monday video-only affair tonight.

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USB-C accessories

First, an observation to start us off. Remember those USB-C cables that were purportedly going to be color matched to the iPhone 15 and packaged with the new phone?

Yeah, that didn’t happen. The folks who called the claim dubious and predicted instead that they were intended for the iMac will likely take a victory lap on Monday evening.

The colors, I think, were yellow, orange, blue, white or purple, and … black. A black (or midnight) iMac would rule — as long as the bezels weren’t white.

The M1 iMac comes with color-matched peripherals (Magic Keyboard and Magic Trackpad or Magic Mouse) and a USB-C to Lightning cable for pairing and charging. We can probably expect to see these cables and the USB-C version of the Magic Keyboard, Magic Trackpad, and upside-down charging Magic Mouse on Monday.

This has since been mentioned by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman as happening.

M3 Macs

Apple’s use of the Happy Mac face from Finder removes any mystery about this being a Mac event.

Ming-Chi Kuo, who predicted no new Macs this year, now believes Apple will reveal more new Macs this year:

I believe M3 series MacBook Pro will be Oct 30th media event’s focus. I previously predicted a launch this year is unlikely due to limited 4Q23 shipments (less than 400-500k units in total). If new MBPs launch in Nov-Dec, tight supply will last into 1Q24 unless demand weakens.

Bold predictions aside, Mark Gurman at Bloomberg adds to his ongoing reporting around next-gen Apple silicon. He expects Apple to unveil M3 Pro and M3 Max 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro models. They’ll feature up to 16-core CPU and up to 40-core GPU options.

Apple released M2 Pro and M2 Max MacBook Pros at the start of the year. Those were expected to debut a few months sooner, however. These new Macs would put Apple roughly back on schedule.

As for some wishcasting, well, Apple doesn’t offer a MacBook Pro in midnight… yet.

Back to Mark Gurman’s intel, he also highlights his existing reporting that the next iMac will feature the M3 chip, a minor internal redesign for the stand, and the same or similar colors.

Something Gurman doesn’t expect? M3 MacBook Airs. He says 13-inch and 15-inch M3 MacBook Airs are further behind MacBook Pros in development, and he doesn’t believe we’ll see them next week. The same goes for new versions of the Mac mini, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro.

Read Mark Gurman’s event rundown in full on Bloomberg.

So there we have it. Not only will Apple unveil the M3 chip, but we’ll also see the M3 Pro and M3 Max chip on the same day… err night.

The Scary Fast keynote video plays on Monday, October 30, at 5 p.m. PT, 8 p.m. ET.

But what if it’s M2 iMacs after all?

John Gruber at Daring Fireball has a different theory on what’s coming:

• 24-inch iMac with M2
• New “pro” iMacs with M2 Pro and M2 Max, possibly 27-inch display like the Studio Display

Now that’s more like what MacOtakara first floated.

More

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• Apple sends out gift boxes with AirPods Max and snacks to promote M3 Mac event