CiC

http://www.metro.co.uk/tech/games/89625 ... TO=socialm

Theroies that there's a console being made between the two are flying about. Probably more likely that it'll be some kinda way of having steam on Apple's new TV or something. If that article is to be believed, Valve hae been investing in a joypad they are developing and also have been hiring more and more tech guys, so a console would be reasonable to suggest, but there could be many other reasons for those things happening, most likely expansion of the company... but why is Apple's CEO visiting them? Anyones guess really.

I recently read all this stuff we're hearing about comes under research and development and being blown out of proportion.

To date I've heard in the past year Valve are working on,

Augmented reality glasses / Control pad.
A console
A Steam platform, for movies for home owners
Streaming of valve games for existing consoles/TV systems
Dedicated servers for rental
A mobile phone (for gaming mainly ofc)
A handheld console (sort of ties in with the one above)
A new engine
A New Half-life game
An MMO Game
Specialised gaming peripherals (Mouse/Keyboard)

So far, I've not actually seen any of these rumours to materialise as truth, as to be put to production and/or shown directly to the media. Although who knows what they have up their sleeve, there's a lot of rumours flying about and I'm sure I've missed some of them.

Edit: One thing I know of is they have hired more staff in the last year, so they're doing something.