Category: Technology

Designed for deployment in space-constrained industrial robotic solutions, the de next-RAP8-EZBOX packs 13th Gen Intel Core processing into a system measuring just 95.5mm x 69.5mm x 42.5mm.

(Taipei, Taiwan – Feb 12) Edge computing leader AAEON (Stock Code: 6579), today announced another breakthrough with the release of the de next-RAP8-EZBOX, the world’s smallest embedded PC powered by 13th Generation Intel® Core™ Processors.

Measuring just 95.5mm x 69.5mm x 42.5mm with a heatsink, and 95.5mm x 69.5mm x 45.4mm with an active cooler, the de next-RAP8-EZBOX is designed for deployment in space-constrained autonomous systems or as the central controller within industrial robots.

The system comes with the 10-core, 12-thread Intel® Core™ i7-1365UE processor (formerly Raptor Lake), Intel® Iris® Xe Graphics, and 16GB of soldered LPDDR5x system memory. Despite its small size and relatively high processing capabilities, the de next-RAP8-EZBOX provides a range of I/Os designed to connect and coordinate with various robotics subsystems. For example, the system comes with two LAN ports, one for GbE and one for 2.5GbE speed, joined by two USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports. Rounding off its physical interfaces is an HDMI 1.2a port. Meanwhile, the de next-RAP8-EZBOX’s storage comes via an M.2 2280 M-Key slot.

The de next-RAP8-EZBOX is available with both fan-assisted and passive heatsink cooling options, making it possible to integrate the system into fully sealed enclosures without the risk of overheating. Moreover, the system’s 15W performance hybrid architecture CPU and LPDDR5x system memory both minimize heat output and energy draw, preventing excessive thermal buildup during extended periods of operation.

Despite it being a new release, the product has already seen a great deal of attention, winning a Taiwan Excellence Award for its innovative design and market potential, particularly with respect to its potential use in space-constrained autonomous systems or as a central controller within industrial robots.

The system offers broad compatibility with operating systems, including Windows® 10 and Ubuntu 22.04.3 (Kernel 6.2).

The new partnership introduces smartphone-controlled multiplayer gaming to Škoda EVs, including Tetris® as a six-month Škoda-exclusive title, delivering a smarter, more social in-car gaming experience.

 Zurich, Switzerland – Feb 12; AirConsole, the in-car gaming platform by N-Dream, today announced a new partnership with Škoda, bringing its gaming experience to the brand’s battery-electric vehicles in Europe. The rollout includes the Škoda Enyaq with Software Version 4.0 and higher (produced from October 2023, Model Year 2024) and Škoda Elroq model, allowing drivers and passengers to play games directly on the vehicle’s infotainment display using their smartphones as controllers.

 Designed specifically for the car environment, AirConsole turns parked moments, such as charging stops, road-trip breaks, or waiting times, into shared entertainment experiences, without requiring any additional hardware.

 Tetris reimagined for the in car experience

Launching alongside the partnership is one of gaming’s most recognizable titles: Tetris. Designed specifically for the in-car environment, with smartphone-controlled gameplay on the vehicle’s infotainment screen, Tetris will be available as both a solo and multiplayer experience, allowing drivers and passengers to play together without relying on touch-only dashboard interaction. Tetris will launch exclusively for Škoda drivers for six months.

 Why Tetris®? One of top evergreen of the industry

As one of gaming’s most timeless franchises, Tetris® transcends age, culture, and experience level. Its simple mechanics, depth of play, and iconic soundtrack make it uniquely suited for shared moments in the car, aligning with AirConsole’s vision of turning parked time into meaningful, social experiences.

 Anthony Cliquot, CEO of N-Dream (AirConsole), said: “Welcoming Škoda to AirConsole is a natural fit. As one of the Volkswagen Group’s fastest-growing brands, Škoda understands how digital experiences can make time spent in the car more engaging and more human.” He continues “Games deserve to be thoughtfully integrated into the car; not hidden away in app stores no one uses. That’s exactly why Tetris® is joining AirConsole: a platform with the scale and user experience focus needed to do justice to games in the automotive environment.”

 “Tetris has captivated players for decades because its gameplay is simple, intuitive, and accessible to everyone regardless of age, culture, or gaming experience,” said Maya Rogers, CEO, The Tetris Company. “By expanding Tetris to AirConsole and Škoda we’re meeting players in everyday moments and transforming parked time into shared entertainment, continuing our mission to make Tetris easy to pick up, fun to play, and meaningful to experience together.”

 A Curated Game Library Built for the Car

Beyond Tetris®, Škoda drivers will have access to a curated catalog of 14 casual game titles spanning genres such as party, trivia, arcade, sports, puzzle, and others. Highlights include UNO® Car Party and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

 The service will be available in EU countries and supports up to five players, depending on the game and vehicle configuration. The app is pre-installed and drivers can access it through their Media Streaming package.

 Petr Kabelka, Connectivity & New Businesses Lead, at Škoda Auto said “Our goal is to enrich the everyday mobility experience with meaningful digital services. With AirConsole, we are opening a new chapter in in-car entertainment at Škoda, allowing customers to explore new forms of digital experiences directly in the vehicle as part of our Media Streaming package.”

The Škoda launch reflects how in-car gaming is evolving from a novelty into a designed, social experience that fits naturally into everyday electric vehicle use.

Barcelona, Spain & Zurich, Switzerland , Feb 12: Wallapop, the leading platform for conscious consumption in Spain, today announced a strategic partnership with Swiss AI company Albatross to deploy real-time AI discovery across its platform, advancing user engagement and seller visibility at unprecedented scale.

 With Albatross, Wallapop becomes one of the first C2C marketplaces globally to move beyond static, history-based recommendation systems toward in-session, adaptive discovery that understands user intent as it unfolds.

 In practice, this means discovery on Wallapop becomes more pro-active and responsive. For instance, when a user explores a second-hand sofa and then starts browsing rugs or floor lamps, the system understands the shift from evaluating a single item to furnishing a living space. Instead of continuing to surface more sofas, as traditional recommenders do, discovery adapts in real time to reflect the user’s evolving intent, highlighting relevant complementary items across categories, including products the user didn’t know existed.

 As the session continues, the experience keeps evolving: a user who then clicks on a vintage coffee table may start seeing lighting, paintings, décor, or storage pieces that match the same style, even if they never looked for them explicitly. This allows users to uncover highly relevant listings that feel like genuine finds, rather than variations of what they’ve already seen. Crucially, this allows discovery to keep pace as interests change (even within the same session) and helps the right listings surface at the right moment.

 The announcement follows Albatross’ recent $12.25 million fundraise to deploy its real-time perception layer; a technology designed to understand what users want in the moment. Forbes recently described this approach as the “second pillar of AI.” While generative AI has transformed how content is created, Albatross focuses on how content is discovered in environments where scale and choice overwhelm traditional personalization.

 Early production deployments have shown significant impact, beyond what is possible with traditional recommenders. In a four-week A/B test on 10% of Wallapop’s traffic, measuring performance across the entire homepage experience, the platform yielded:

• Increase in User Engagement: +118.9%
• Increase in Favorites & Interactions: +104.8%
• Increase Purchase Intentions: +46.9%

 Importantly, the system surfaced previously unseen items to qualified buyers, demonstrating its ability to unlock latent supply rather than simply amplify already popular listings. These gains have remained remarkably stable – and continued to improve – over an extended four-month production period, underscoring the robustness of the approach beyond short-term experimentation.

 For Wallapop, the shift goes beyond buyer relevance. The partnership introduces algorithmic seller discovery as a core capability, dynamically matching live buyer intent with relevant, shippable listings and addressing one of recommerce’s hardest challenges: ensuring quality supply doesn’t get lost in volume.

 “At Wallapop, we are moving toward a system that understands what users want in real time, helping buyers find the right items faster while giving sellers more effective visibility for their listings,” says Rob Cassedy, CEO of Wallapop. “Our collaboration with Albatross represents another step forward in our mission to empower people to participate in a more conscious consumption model that creates economic opportunities for people.”

 Unlike conventional recommenders built on past behavior and popularity signals, Albatross’ technology continuously interprets live user interactions. Every action within a session updates the system’s understanding of user intent and the catalog, allowing discovery to adapt instantly to changing behavior, supply dynamics, and context. This approach is particularly helpful for second-hand marketplaces, where millions of unique items with inconsistent metadata make traditional popularity- or similarity-based methods ineffective.

 For Albatross, Wallapop represents a demanding real-world environment for AI discovery. With a constantly evolving catalog of one-of-a-kind items and high listing velocity, Wallapop provides an ideal setting to validate and scale in-session perception models under real marketplace constraints.

 “Together with Wallapop, we’re delivering an online discovery experience comparable to the best in-store journey; one where users uncover products that feel like true hidden gems, tailored just for them, in real time” said Dr. Kevin Kahn, CEO of Albatross AI. “While large language models make sense of words, Albatross’ perception model makes sense of the sequence and context of user actions as they happen. This partnership demonstrates a radical shift in discovery, search, and personalization, which have seen little innovation for more than a decade.”

 The partnership represents one of the earliest large-scale commercial deployments of adaptive, in-session AI discovery in recommerce, reinforcing Wallapop’s ambition to lead the next phase of marketplace evolution.

The evaluation was based on specific criteria that analyzed the company’s overall Completeness of Vision and Ability to Execute.

SAN FRANCISCO / MUMBAI, Feb 12 - CleverTap, the all-in-one customer engagement platform, announced that they have been positioned by Gartner® as a Leader in their 2026 Magic Quadrant™ for Personalization Engines.

We believe this recognition underscores the progress we are making alongside our customers, a growing ecosystem of forward-looking brands and partners dedicated to delivering relevant, responsible, and effective personalization.

Our approach to hyper-personalisation, individualized to each customer, is built around agentic AI capabilities from CleverAI™ designed to deliver “Experience of One” through 1:1 engagement at scale. We believe the CleverAI™ Decisioning Engine plays a central role in interpreting customer intent, enabling brands to connect customers with the right message, on the right channel, at the right moment. Combined with a comprehensive suite of personalization capabilities, we believe these capabilities are helping brands drive measurable outcomes, including up to 35% higher conversion rates across key use cases in industries like financial services, retail, ecommerce, media, telecom, and many others.

At the core of this approach is CleverAI™, our enterprise-grade agentic intelligence and decisioning engine. Designed for autonomous real-time orchestration, it enables continuous experience optimization across the customer lifecycle. We believe this focus on unified intelligence, real-time decisioning, and scalable hyper-personalization has contributed to our broader market momentum.

“We consider our positioning in the Leaders Quadrant by Gartner as confirmation of our capability that enables customers to improve business outcomes with the power of CleverAI™,” said Anand Jain, Co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer, CleverTap.

“We continue to innovate while we execute on our product roadmap. With CleverAI™, we are delivering a truly revolutionary AI-First Customer Engagement Platform that will change the face of the martech and customer engagement industry, further enhancing our market position”.

(Gartner, “Magic Quadrant for Personalization Engines,” by Penny Gillespie, Jason Daigler, Michael Ro, Ross Cosner, 3 February 2026.)

Gartner and Magic Quadrant are trademarks of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates.

Gartner does not endorse any company, vendor, product or service depicted in its publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s business and technology insights organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this publication, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.