Apple has held an October event in three out of the past four years, but is an event this month still likely after today's surprise iPad mini

We marked October 22 on the calendar and canceled our appointments. We were almost certain that Apple would hold its second fall keynote on that day and unveil new Macs and iPads. But then, just when we were expecting an invitation, Cupertino sent us instead a press release with details of the 7th-gen iPad mini… and nothing else.

Starting at $499 for the base model, the seventh-gen iPad Mini has the same chassis as its predecessor, but with a few upgrades including a new processor, support for Apple Intelligence, and double the storage. It also works with the latest Apple Pencil Pro. It's available for preorder now and ships October 23.