Apple’s ‘Scary Fast’ event - live: New Macs and spooky surprises expected at shock live launch
Hallowe’en event rumoured to bring fast new professional computers
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Your support makes all the difference.Apple is set to hold its latest event – and is promising that it will be “scary”.
The event will begin the day before Hallowe’en and is rumoured to be bringing a host of new Macs. The company teased it with an invitation reading “Scary Fast” and apparent references to the Mac operating system.
It is Apple’s third major event of the year, after the iPhone launch in September and its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June. At WWDC, Apple revealed its new augmented reality headset, which might also feature in the upcoming launch.
Otherwise, Apple is rumoured to be updating its iMac with a new chip, and putting new processors in its high end, 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro.
It will begin at 5pm local pacific time, which is 8pm eastern or midnight in the UK. It will be livestreamed on YouTube as well as Apple’s website.
Apple launches MacBook Pro, 24-inch iMac and new chips
Here’s the story on all the products Apple announced today. And that’s all there is!
No more events likely this year
Tim Cook gave a little wrap-up of 2023 at the end of the event, talking about how much has been introduced this year. That’s probably intended as much as anything to signal that there’ll be no more live launches to come in the next couple of months.
(That means that no iPad will be updated in 2023, most likely.)
That’s all!
Another cut to the spooky Apple logo hovering amid the clouds; a message that the whole event was shot on iPhone; and that’s all!
So it’s just a MacBook Pro and iMac, as well as the M3 chips that will power them, that will be announced today.
The event was almost exactly 30 minutes long. That is unusually short for an Apple event. But nothing about today’s launch was usual.
New iMac features revealed
Here’s all the features of the new iMac. Again, these are new from the old version of the iMac – not the previous 24-inch one that it is replacing. The price is unchanged at $1,299, and it will be available next week.
Apple updates 24-inch iMac
Apple is also adding the M3 to the iMac. Apart from that, everything looks the same, with the same colours and design.
Again, Apple is comparing this computer with the Intel version of the iMac, rather than the 24-inch one.
Apple has reduced the price of the 14-inch MacBook Pro from $1,999 to $1,499. The price of the larger one stays the same.
M3 and M3 Pro are available next week. The M3 Max will be available later in November.
Apple introduces new MacBook Pro
Here are the big features of the new MacBook Pro. (Many of these were already available, and again it’s more of a comparison with the Intel laptops.)
Everyone is standing really far away in Apple’s keynote
For some reason, Apple’s presenters are being shown as if they are at the back of a very large hall, and you’re very far away. I don’t know if this is to emphasise the darkness (thematic and colour-wise) of this event.
New colour
Apple is also introducing the MacBook Pro in “space black”. (It says that it has made the computer so that it won’t pick up fingerprints.) Until now, it has only been available in silver.
Apple stressing comparisons with Intel
In what appears to be a quiet gesture of humility about the power of these upgrades, Apple is stressing how well this MacBook compares with the last Intel laptops. The numbers it is showing are in comparison with those computers, the most recent of which were released in 2019.
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