Apple is full of surprises this week with the announcement of a barely-October-almost-November event on October 30 at 17:00 Pacific. The new time is interesting, but I expect it is more than an experiment.

The graphics hint is the Mac Finder icon so expect Mac news. The question is which Macs are the news?

• The 24″ iMac is still on the M1 chip and the M3 chip is rumored to be heading our way. Maybe we see new colorful M3 iMacs just in time for the holidays?
• It seems early for an M3 MacBook Air and that’s a popular Mac. I have to wonder if they are getting M3 chips at sufficient scale to move that one up to M3 yet.
• The rumor mill seems to think we’ll get M3 MacBook Pros. There are a lot of good reasons for that, but it would be strange seeing the new M3 chips on the upper end Macs before the lower end ones.

I don’t know anything more than what all the rumors are saying at this point. If it is a move to the 3nm M3, I approve. Back in the Intel days it took years for speed bumps. Maybe that comes faster in the age of Apple silicon?

I will add to the prediction list that if Craig Federighi makes a substantive appearance (it may just be about hardware, not software), they’ll find some way to put him in a Halloween costume. (I’ll go out on a limb and say vampire.)

Lastly, if you are in the MacSparky Labs, check your email tomorrow. I’m going to plan a Labs meetup for the day after.