It is getting a bit like old news already, but Jeri Ellsworth from Valve's hardware team revealed to Engadget that she's hoping to have a beta of the team's first product in 2013. What this product will be is still unknown, but it could be a project that involves wearable computing. Ellsworth is hoping to have [a beta] for the team's first product in the coming year -- we'll of course know much more about the product by then, she says. 

Internal beta tests are already underway, and a variety of the team's prototypes are available in the office for other Valve employees to tool around with. The next step is getting prototypes into gamers hands -- she says Valve already has a production line for short runs, making a beta possible -- and iterating on design before launch.

Valve hired Jeri Ellsworth in early 2012, along with several other hardware hackers. She's a self-taught computer chip designer and entrepreneur, who sold over 250,000 units of a self-designed joystick with a built-in hardware Commodore 64 emulator.