How to watch it and what to expect

Apple announced it would be holding another event before the year is out and it is very much looking like we can expect some new Macs. The company loves a little tease with its invites and the animation for the ‘Scary Fast’ event sees the Apple logo turn into the iconic Finder icon, all but confirming new Macs are on the cards.

There have been plenty of rumours about a new iMac, alongside new MacBook Pro models, and we’ve seen a number of conflicting reports about the M3 chip and whether or not it might make an appearance. With that in mind, here’s everything you need to know about the Apple ‘Scary Fast’ event, including when it is happening, how to watch it and what treats we might be able to expect.

When does the Apple ‘Scary Fast’ event start?

Typically Apple holds its events at 10AM Pacific Time, but that’s not the case for the ‘Scary Fast’ event. In a break from tradition, the ‘Scary Fast’ event will take place in the evening on the eve of Halloween and we suspect that’s no coincidence.

It is bad news for those in Europe however, as it means the start time for the Apple ‘Scary Fast’ event is significantly later than Apple’s usual product announcements would usually be, meaning you’ll need to be staying up passed midnight if you want to see what Apple means by “Treat yourself” in its teaser of the event.

The ‘Scary Fast’ event is set to take place on Monday 30 October, 2023 at 8PM Eastern Time (ET). You can see a rundown of some of the timezones across the world below to figure out what time it will kick off where you are.

• 17:00 PT (West Coast USA)
• 20:00 EDT (East Coast USA)
• 00:00 GMT (UK)
• 01:00 +1 CET (Europe)
• 08:00 +1 SGT (Singapore / HK / Taiwan)

How to watch the Apple ‘Scary Fast’ event

Despite Apple choosing to change up the time for this event, you’ll still be able to watch the ‘Scary Fast’ event in all the traditional ways.

Apple offers a livestream on its homepage, as well as the company’s YouTube channel. There’s access through the Apple Events page and via Apple TV and TV app too if you check out the Apple Event category. We’ve also dropped the stream here for easy access.

What to expect from the Apple ‘Scary Fast’ event

The Apple iPhone 15 event had no shortage of devices announced and it’s looking like the same will be said for the ‘Scary Fast” event. This is what is expected to be revealed.

M3 chip

It’s probably no coincidence that Apple announced the ‘Scary Fast’ event on the same day Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Summit revealed the X Elite platform for PC will reportedly be 50 per cent faster than the M2 chip. Apple’s silicone M series chips have been praised for their power and efficiency so it was a big claim for Qualcomm to make for it’s latest platform.

What better time to announce a new platform that should be even faster than the platform your competition just claimed to beat hey?

Rumours claim the M3 chips, which we suspect will include the M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max, will be built on a 3nm process, similar to the A17 Pro that recently debuted on the iPhone 15 Pro runs on. The current M2 chips are built on a 5nm process so if the rumours are accurate, this could offer quite substantial performance gains.

Apple / Pocket-lint

iMac (M3, 2023)

Apple redesigned the iMac in 2021 and it was glorious. It doesn’t offer as large of a display some might have liked (we’re still mourning the 27-inch iMac), but the overall design is delightful. It’s been a couple of years now though and while the design is rumoured to be sticking, along with the 24-inch screen size, a new, more powerful iMac is reported to be one of the devices set to be unveiled at the “Scary Fast’ event.

It’s expected that Apple will reveal the new iMac running on the M3 chip and rumours suggest the base model will offer an eight-core CPU and 10-core GPU, which is the same as what the base M2 chip has. There are some rumours about a larger iMac with a 32-inch display but it’s thought this will arrive next year rather than at the ‘Scary Fast’ event.

MacBook Pro (M3, 2023) 14-inch and 16-inch

Reports suggest we might see a mid-cycle update for the top-of-the range MacBook Pro models at the ‘Scary Fast’ event. It’s claimed the 14-inch and 16-inch models, which were only updated with the M2 Max and M2 Pro chips earlier this year, would see a bump to the M3 Max and M3 Pro chips, along with more efficient Mini-LED displays.

The current MacBook Pros are exceptional laptops but despite offering a decent battery life overall, they don’t match the MacBook Air in our experience so here’s hoping that Mini-LED rumour is true and the mid-cycle update brings not only more power but a battery bump too.

Rumours suggest the M3 Pro and M3 Max chips could offer 16-core CPUs, 40-core GPUs and 48GB of memory, which is slightly higher than the already impressive 12-core CPU, 38-core GPU and 32GB, 64GB and 96GB memory options offered on the M2 chips.

Anything else?

If you’re an Apple fan, you might be wondering where the iPads are at. There have been rumours of a new iPad mini and a redesigned iPad Pro and while in the past iPads have been revealed at an October event, it’s expected they will likely be next year instead. Apple recently announced the Apple Pencil (USB-C) and if new iPads were coming so soon after that announcement, it would surely have made more sense to announce at the same time?

There have been rumours of the 13-inch MacBook Pro too, and this we would expect to arrive on an M3 chip too, if it appears. Elsewhere, with Apple switching to USB-C and updating accessories like AirPods and the Apple Pencil, we wouldn’t be too surprised to see a new Magic Mouse, Magic Trackpad and Magic Keyboard revealed alongside the iMac, upgrading them from Lightning. Here’s hoping the upgrade also includes a better-placed port on the Magic Mouse too.