Xi3 PISTON Console - this much anticipated all-in-one rig is coming to you on this year's Black Friday. you can avoid the mad rush, if any, by pre-ordering this awesome rig today. hit up this link to learn more.

Hot on the heels of Steam's big announcements, the Xi3 Piston people have popped again, hoping to fool people into believing it's one of the Steam Machines that Valve will be endorsing.  At a ridiculous $1000 price point, they're now making headlines in all the tech blogs, but here's what the Rock, Paper, Shotgun commenter "DPI" says:

....This Xi3 guy is trolling every tech blog like he did in January. Its one guy working out of his house with a generic miniPC sourced from alibaba.com and a logo sticker slapped on the side. He misrepresented himself to Valve as the designer/manufacturer, they liked form factor and invited him to display it at CES booth along with many other miniPC’s, Valve was generous and gave checks to everyone that came and displayed at their booth to “develop their ideas further”, Gabe specifically told this guy the check does not imply an endorsement, then this guy turned around and trolled the tech blogosphere by very carefully twisting the facts around “That’s right we’re working VERY closely with Valve on THE Steambox!”

He’s a b.s. artist trying to create perception of Valve affiliation even after they told him to knock it off, now he’s riding Valve’s publicity wave once again. Stop feeding the troll.

I don't know who "DPI" is, or where he gets his information from, but this would make a lot more sense.  Valve distanced themselves from the brilliantly named and labelled "Piston" a long time ago, but I'm sure thousands of gamers will assume this is the kind of low-value, high-price crap Valve will be releasing.

Xi3 piston gets a release date and official pricing

Xi3 piston gets a release date and official pricing

Xi3’s PC console to be available in November at a sub-$1000 price point. The device that everyone thought was the Steam box has gotten a release date and a price. In a press release sent out Monday night, Xi3 announced that its PC gaming console will be available on November 29 at a price p...

New episode of The Basics. 

Valve introduces beta program for Steam home gaming machines.

Valve recently announced the beta sign up program for Steam for their home gaming machines, which will be available for commercial purchase in 2014. The machines will be using the also recently announced SteamOS, and on commercial release, will be available for multiple manufacturers, implying varying specs for the machines

Normally, On The Cheap tells you how to get a phone for a penny or tablet for a buck or some other major discount on desired tech. Today’s deal is a bit pricier, but it also comes with the incentive of paying back to the planet. At a base price of $499 for the standard model of the Xi3,…