Two New Voices at Tech Between the Lines

Tech Between the Lines has always been built around a specific kind of coverage: Apple taken seriously, argued through evidence, written for people who actually care about how this stuff works. That hasn't changed. What has changed is that the site has grown to the point where I want to give more angles the space they deserve. That means bringing in writers whose perspectives genuinely extend what's here, rather than duplicate it.

Starting this week, two contributors are joining the site. You can meet the full team here.

Brad Thomas

Brad is a product designer and UX/UI Principal at the Electric Power Research Institute, a 30-year Apple enthusiast, and an Apple shareholder. He approaches technology the way designers do: always asking not just what a product does, but whether it's solving the right problem in the right way. His journalism background runs deep. Over 25 years he's written for FOX Sports, Yahoo Sports, and the Salisbury Post, managed a credentialed Carolina Panthers media presence, and served as senior graphic designer for the Charlotte Hornets. He publishes his own work at bradthomas.io and is worth following there as well. You can find his author page on TBTL here.

What Brad Brings to TBTL

Brad's beat here is Apple through a designer's eyes. That means UX critique when Apple gets something wrong and honest credit when it gets something right. It means product analysis with attention to how things are built, not just what features they list. It means coverage of the iOS and macOS app ecosystem and the broader creative community Apple's platforms serve, with particular focus on how Apple navigates AI, how its design language evolves, and what the company gets right and wrong when it's building for people who actually build things.

His first piece is already up: WWDC 2026 Is Apple's Last Chance to Get AI Right, a sharp look at what Apple actually needs to deliver on Siri. Go read it. Brad will be publishing a couple of times a week.

Hayden Bond

Hayden is the founder of Plate Lunch Collective, an AI search optimization agency based in Hawaii. With more than two decades in search behind him, his professional world sits at the intersection of artificial intelligence, search behavior, and how people discover things in an era when buyers ask ChatGPT or Perplexity instead of typing into a search bar. He watches on-device AI adoption and AI monthly active user data the way others track product spec leaks.

His Apple thesis is one he stated directly when he reached out: Apple may be the company that makes AI a normal part of daily life for ordinary consumers. Not in a research-lab sense, but in the Google-became-a-verb sense. The install base is there, the ecosystem is there, and WWDC 2026 may be the moment the software finally catches up. You can find his author page on TBTL here.

What Hayden Brings to TBTL

Hayden's contributions will focus on the ripple effects of Apple's AI push: what happens when Siri gets good, how on-device AI changes the way people search and discover, and what Apple's ecosystem means for the broader AI adoption curve. It's a perspective grounded in real business outcomes and consumer behavior data, not just feature announcements. He'll be contributing on a guest basis when he has something worth saying.

Two new different angles on Apple. Both worth reading. Welcome to both of them.