Apple’s ‘Scary Fast’ event - live: New Macs and spooky surprises expected at shock live launch

Everything has kicked off with a video. (It’s all about Macs, and it’s not spooky.)

The Apple Store has gone down after all. While the main pages are still up, clicking into any specific product (such as the MacBook Air, here) shows that it’s offline. That’s the same for all products – even the iPhone.

“Be right back,” the message reads. “We’re making updates to the Apple Store. Check back soon.” It then directs visitors to Apple’s event page.

In a development that might mean that there’s no major announcements coming, or might not mean anything at all, there haven’t really been any last-minute leaks about what Apple will be launching today.

All the rumours remain the same: some new Macs, and maybe some new Mac accessories. You can read them all here.

You can watch the Apple event in a variety of places, including on Apple’s devoted events page, here. But in my opinion the best place to do so is YouTube, which works on almost every platform, is very reliable, and even lets you sign up for a notification when the event starts. Here’s the YouTube video:

There’s one hour* left until the event starts and we get to see whether Tim Cook has dressed up, and how he will vary his usual “good morning” greeting.

* That’s 5pm local pacific time, 8pm eastern, or midnight in the UK. It’s slightly more confusing (and less late) in the UK than it would normally have been, because the clocks have gone back there already, but haven’t yet done so in the US.

Apple usually takes its online store down in the hours before events, seemingly so that it can put new products up on it. This time around, that hasn’t happened – even on the Mac part of the store. (You can find it here.)

Does that mean that Apple isn’t planning on announcing anything that’s available to buy straight after the event? Are the newly announced products going to be so niche that they won’t cause any particular strain on the website and can be updated quickly? Or has Apple finally built its website so that it doesn’t need to go offline?

We’ll find out in an hour or two...

There’s a lot that’s odd about the ‘Scary Fast’ event: it’s late in the month for an Apple launch, and it was announced closer to the actual event than usual. But the weirdest thing about it all is the timing.

Apple’s recent events have always started at 10am local pacific time. But this will be held at 5pm pacific. It’s more than a little strange. (And unsociable and difficult to watch for those in Europe, though undoubtedly better for some other time zones.) Tim Cook has become well-known (and sometimes mocked) for starting his events by saying “good morning”, but he won’t get to do that.

Why is it doing that? It’s still not clear. Some have pointed to a possible tie-in with people in other time zones, such as the launch of Resident Evil for Mac, which might have some involvement from people in Japan. Or perhaps it’s just to chime with the spooky theme.

All will be revealed in a few hours. (Or maybe it won’t, and Apple won’t mention the time.)

Tim Cook is looking forward to the event – seemingly both referencing and disavowing the Hallowe’en theme. He doesn’t give any clue to what will be launched, but does look like he’s confirming that the event will be dark and shot at night.

... to The Independent’s live coverage of Apple’s “Scary Fast” event.