Tech News Roundup — July 28, 2026 (NOON)

A thin NOON edition: the AM roundup already swept the morning wire, so only two new stories have surfaced since — both from Pplware. The ongoing DRAM crunch is now visibly bleeding into automotive sticker prices, and Microsoft is preparing to lean on TPM silicon to choke off pirated copies of Windows from August onward.

Hardware

• RAM shortage now pushes up car prices. The same memory crunch that’s been squeezing PC builders, enthusiasts and gamers for months is finally showing up at the auto dealership. Industry analysts say the supply pressure on DRAM and high-bandwidth modules — driven by the AI industry’s appetite for HBM — is forcing vehicle manufacturers to absorb higher component costs and pass them on. The result is the first measurable jump in retail automotive pricing tied directly to the memory market, not just to general inflation or EV transition costs. Pplware

Microsoft

• Microsoft to require TPM chips on PCs to block pirated Windows. From August, Microsoft is tightening anti-piracy enforcement at the hardware level: PCs that don’t carry a TPM module will no longer be able to run unauthorised copies of Windows. The move reframes TPM — long pitched as a security and BitLocker primitive — as a licensing gatekeeper, and is likely to drive a wave of low-end refurbish and grey-market machines toward either legitimate licensing or a hard cut-off. OEMs are watching closely, since the rule effectively devalues any Windows-capable hardware shipped without a TPM 2.0 chip. Pplware

Roundup compiled from the TTRSS Tech feed. 2 articles from 1 source summarized across 2 sections.