In only a few hours, Apple will maintain its second occasion of the autumn and third of the yr—dubbed “Scary Quick” and seemingly targeted on the Mac. The announcement caught us off-guard since we had heard there wouldn’t be an October occasion this yr, and one thing about the entire thing simply appeared off. Apple is reportedly holding this occasion to resume curiosity within the Mac earlier than the vacation season. Nonetheless, it’s beginning to seem like this “Scary Quick” occasion may have the other impact.
The time
In our years overlaying Apple, we will’t keep in mind one other occasion that was purposefully deliberate for the night. Positive there have been commerce exhibits in Paris or Tokyo that pressured Apple to carry keynotes at odd occasions, however this one is totally in Apple’s management. The occasion will happen at 5 p.m. PT—or 8 p.m. on the East Coast. That’s very late for a U.S.-based occasion, particularly one which includes displaying a prerecorded video. Spare a thought for the remainder of the world too, with the U.Ok. anticipated to look at the occasion at midnight.
The timing may very well be as a consequence of Halloween and Apple’s simply leaning into the “spooky” aspect of issues (the corporate did ship out candy- and AirPods Max-filled care packages to influencers). Or it may very well be a strategy to bury not-so-great information. Even with an organization like Apple, an occasion at 8 p.m. ET goes to get far much less protection than one at 1 within the afternoon. So Apple could be attempting to restrict its publicity right here.
The rumors
For months we had heard that Apple wasn’t holding a second fall occasion this yr. And the rumors backed that up—sure there was an M3 processor within the works, however the brand new merchandise have been largely the identical because the M2 fashions however sooner. And that’s nonetheless the case. The most recent studies say Apple will unveil a new iMac and 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Professionals on Monday with a sooner chip and never a lot else—no Airs, no AirPods, no iPads, nothing.
Is an up to date chip that’s barely sooner than the previous-gen, some further brightness within the show, and perhaps Wi-Fi 7 sufficient to hold an occasion? The iMac, which hasn’t been up to date since April 2021, isn’t even anticipated to get new colours. So can Apple actually hold our consideration for an hour or so with a barely sooner chip and a whole lot of Johny Srouji?
The chip
Lastly, there’s the M3 processor itself. We had extraordinarily excessive hopes for the M3 once we first heard a brand new 3nm Mac chip was in improvement. Now we’re not so positive. After the A17 Professional introduced very modest positive factors over the A16 Bionic and rumors, we anticipate the M3 to carry comparable pace positive factors because the M2, roughly 15 p.c. That’s positive, however It’s additionally not event-worthy.
The M3 Professional and M3 Max might carry larger positive factors, particularly with regards to graphics, however we’re not all that optimistic, particularly since all three chips will debut on the identical time. If the M3 was a giant leap, Apple could be comfortable to let it stand alone, as an alternative, it’s going to seemingly be overshadowed by sooner chips, which will not be all that quick themselves. Rumors say the M3 Professional and M3 Max can have comparable core and pace upgrades because the M2, which may make for a really meh occasion.
