Monday, Monday: Apple surprises with "Unleashed" event for October 18th

Remember all of the products that you expected to see introduced during Apple's California Streaming event last month, but which Apple never mentioned? Like the AirPods 3, for example? Well, we have some good news to give you this afternoon. A Tweet from Apple's Senior Vice President Marketing, Greg Joswiak, reveals that the tech giant will hold an "Unleashed" event on October 18th starting at 10am PDST (1 pm EDST).

The AirPods 3 could have a design resembling the AirPods Pro with a shorter stem, longer battery life, improved audio, a redesigned carrying/charging case, and more. Noise cancellation is not expected to crossover from the Pro version as Apple wants it to remain the key reason why consumers pay $250 for the premium version of the true wireless earbuds.

Unleashed! These next six days are going to speed by. #AppleEventpic.twitter.com/0ops2bVPvl

— Greg Joswiak (@gregjoz) October 12, 2021

We do expect Apple to unveil a slew of Macs next Monday. As far as longshots, Apple has been working on its mixed reality headset but we don't anticipate any major surprises to take place on October 18th. Speaking of the date, it is a Monday which is an unusual day for Apple to introduce new products. But Tuesday the 19th is already taken by Google which is expected to introduce the Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro on that date.

You don't often see Apple giving in to anyone, much less Google, but the date has been announced and the event is taking place on a Monday. In the meantime, we will try to figure out if we should apply any significance to the title of the event, "Unleashed." Often there is a connection and in this case it could have something to do with Apple's latest "M" chip. The sequel to the powerful M1 with its 16 billion transistors might be used to power some of the new Macs that Apple is expected to announce.

If Apple does take the wraps off of the successor to the M1, it could go by the M1X moniker. Designed by Apple to replace the Intel processors it had been using, the M series is built by TSMC using its 5nm process node.

As it has done since the start of the pandemic, Apple will pre-record the event. And yes, this could be Apple's final event of the year. During the California Streaming event last month, Apple introduced its new iPhone 13 line consisting of the iPhone 13, iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max. It also unveiled two new iPad tablets including the latest basic iPad model, and the sixth-generation of the iPad mini.

During the same event, Apple announced the Apple Watch Series 7. Without any new health-related features, the big news this year for the smartwatch is the two larger screen sizes (41mm and 45mm) that make the displays 1mm taller than last year's model. Now 1mm doesn't sound like much to work with, but Apple is using the additional space to offer new watch faces and has added a native QWERTY keyboard for the first time.

And with tongue firmly planted in-cheek, we do have to point out that we don't expect a flat-edged version of the watch to be announced next Monday. You might recall that a number of Twitter tipsters showed off images of what they said would be a new design for the Apple Watch Series 7 featuring flat edges which would give it a similar design cue as the iPad Pro, and the iPhone 13 line.

But these tipsters were dumbfounded when the Series 7 timepiece was revealed to have the same rounded sides as it had in previous models. Now, the word is that the flat-edge version will surface as the Apple Watch Series 8 next year.