Update: Live blog of Apple's October event, including big news on M3 Mac.

Apple will hold its second event in two months next week. The just-announced "Scary Fast" event will showcase new Mac hardware and new chips.

Following the iPhone 15 "Wonderlust" event in September, the event is expected to focus on the unveiling of the Apple M3 silico and the next generation MacBook and iMac. Additionally, a new iMac model not seen since 2021 may be unveiled, as well as a new MacBook Pro.

The timing of this event is interesting because Apple will announce its quarterly results on November 2. Since Cupertino usually announces its Q4 earnings in October, delaying it to November means that a new product announcement is more certain.

Unlike the iPhone event, this will be a virtual-only event, so there will be no hands-on opportunities like those seen with the Apple Watch Series 9 and iPhone 15 Pro Max. That's unfortunate, but we'd rather attend Apple's virtual presentation than simply have a bunch of press releases arrive in our inboxes.

Apple's October event is scheduled for October 30 at 5pm PT/8pm ET. If you're planning to watch from the UK, it will start rather unceremoniously at 12:00 a.m. Japan time on Halloween, October 31.

Based in mainland Europe. That would make it 1:00 a.m. or 2:00 a.m. on October 31. This is a bit different from Apple, which usually holds its events in the morning.

Apple has added an option to add the event start time to the calendar on the event page.

On YouTube, Apple has added a stream placeholder for larger events, and on the stream on the official website you can see an animated Apple logo that transforms into a Finder icon. This is another small clue that new Mac hardware (or silicon) may be announced at the event.

A live stream will be available Tuesday morning, probably a few hours before the event starts at 5 p.m. PT.

If you own an Apple TV or other Apple device, you can also watch the event from the TV app.

Apple has not even smelled to us what it intends to announce at the event, but rumors have provided plenty of speculation to give us an idea. And that's before considering the aforementioned Finder icon in Apple's placeholder.

As noted in the introduction, one of the most likely candidates to be unveiled is the new iMac, which will likely feature an upgrade to the M2 chip. The current iMacs are powered by the M1 and were released in 2021. Now, where things get complicated is the big question surrounding the new M3 processor: the M2 chip was released with the MacBook Air M2 last summer, so it makes sense that the M3 chip would be included in the new iMac 12 months later.

Prominent Apple analyst Ming Chi-Kuo believes that the 24-inch iMac with M2 and M2 Pro chips will be refreshed at this event. If that happens, Apple will be able to clear out the remaining inventory while paving the way for M3 silicon to take over in 2024.

The big announcement is expected to be the unveiling of Apple's new M3 silicon chips for the iMac, MacBook, and eventually the iPad.

In the past, there has been some time between the announcement of the standard M-series chips and the Pro/Max/Ultra versions. However, rumors suggest that this time around, the standard M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max will all appear together.

The Apple M3 chip is said to use TSMC's 3nm process. If true, Apple will be the first company to use this advanced process node. In fact, the next generation of Apple computers will be much more powerful than their predecessors using TSMC's 5-nanometer technology. We have already seen the 3nm chip in action in the iPhone 15 Pro.

According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple has tested a version of the M3 Pro chip with 12 CPU cores, 18 GPU cores, and 36 GB of memory The CPU consists of up to six high-performance cores and six efficiency cores. Apparently, this chip was running on a future "high-end" MacBook Pro with the upcoming macOS 14, which is said to be a base-level version of the M3 Pro.

In any case, we strongly suspect that M3 will occupy a significant amount of time at the October 30 event. And it will probably be terribly fast; here is a breakdown of the rumored specs for the M3, M3 Pro, M3 Max, and M3 Ultra.

Since the M3 is likely to be the centerpiece of the event, what about the MacBooks? Since the latest 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros were introduced only nine months ago, a new version seems premature. Nevertheless, a second update within a year is not unheard of.

Kuo initially downplayed the possibility of a new MacBook this year, but seems to have changed his view based on Apple's event announcement.

He revised his prediction that the MacBook Pro M3 would be the focus of the event, but that the final product might be in short supply.

The 13-inch MacBook Pro may be the first to benefit, as it has been some time since the last update, June 2022 to be exact.

We have been hearing a lot of rumors about a new iPad since the tablet did not materialize at the September Wanderlust event. Instead, we got the new Apple Pencil a few weeks later.

Apple is believed to be working on a refresh of the iPad mini 7 and iPad Air 6, but these are only minor refreshes and will likely include a new chipset that will improve performance along with iPad OS17. iPad mini 7 is expected to have an A16 chip like the one found in the standard iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 15 models, while the iPad Air 6 will use M2 silicon.

Interestingly, if Apple decides to remove the iPad from the Scary fast event, it is likely that the year will go by without a refreshed tablet being announced by Apple.

In any case, Tom's Guide will be covering the event in its entirety, so don't forget to check back to see what will be announced (and what will not).