@Background Pony #E424
 
It’s just a fucking cartoon. Why so hysterical about smaller details?

that giggle, she sooo precocious

@Background Pony #E424  
still not pandering

@northern haste  
Please don’t misrepresent my argument. I openly admitted in my previous post that the sole issue they took into consideration and felt the need to address was the factor of holding the phone with a hoof. The problems that remain unaddressed are plentiful, but I’d prefer not to copy-and-paste everything I just detailed since you can easily scroll down and see precisely what I took issue with.
 
As for the G4 examples, you realize that just because G4 is guilty of similar offenses, it does not automatically excuse the practice, right? G4 was by no means perfect; it had abundant flaws and logical inconsistencies. The adult fanbase loved G4 in spite of its flaws, not because of them. With G5, they went out of their way to reveal an entirely new main character using a smartphone. It was clearly meant to be a focal point of the reveal. Criticisms are entirely valid especially when the object of the critique will likely have either a large impact on the internal world building of the series or influence the characterization of our MCs.
 
Furthermore, while the examples you presented definitely showcase some egregious inconsistencies within the internal logic of G4, they do not showcase any sort of “pandering”. Presenting a smartphone as a device used by a main character comes with an assortment of implications:  
#1 Smartphones are a consumer product within the world of G5.  
#2 Ponies will likely use smartphones to communicate with one another as we do.  
#3 The Internet will exist in G5.  
#4 Ponies will likely utilize some form of social media platform.  
#5 There will be rampant references to real-world Internet culture, plenty of jokes and parodies of websites, etc.
 
 
@Background Pony #5CC7  
This is something I have considered before. It would most assuredly be the best way to handle the implementation of a device like this, and it’d likely further bolster the themes of racial division.
 
But, in that case, why would the smartphones require the hoof-holding indentation on the back to begin with? Even if pegasi would be capable of holding the phones while hovering around with their wings, how could they operate the device with a hoof? It’d be roughly comparable to using your elbow or knee to navigate a smartphone, which is obviously an excercise in futility.

@Background Pony #E424  
No a smart phone is literally just a phone  
^{using one right now}  
Also doesn’t look like ponies have a problem holding things  
 

@Background Pony #E424  
Maybe earth ponies just don’t have smartphones? The whole premise of G5 is that the three pony types live in separate societies.

@Background Pony #FE30  
@northern haste  
It’s clearly a corporate decision to pander to the youngsters who can’t imagine life without smart devices. In the world of MLP it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever since it’d be impossible to navigate a traditional smartphone with a hoof. On top of the issue of simple navigation, please explain to me how an Earth Pony could use a smart phone comfortably while standing upright or walking? They’d need to hold it with one hoof and operate it with the other, which would leave no hooves left for the simple act of standing.
 
“An everyday object” is not how I’d see it from the perspective of an equine within the canon of the show. These are everyday objects to humans, and thus have been designed around human ergonomics primarily. Trying to casually retrofit a device made for explicit use by humans for an entirely different species does not work on a conceptual level whatsoever. It is a lazy, slapdash implementation. The only problem they managed to rectify with the counterlogical design was to add that little indentation on the back that fits into the hoof so that characters can actually hold the phone. They have completely neglected to address any of the other aforementioned issues, however.
 
The only pony race that’d be capable of using a smartphone with ease would be unicorns/alicorns. But even for them, it makes no sense to design the device in a way that the phone literally mirrors what an actual human-oriented smartphone looks like. A smart device designed for psychokinetic manipulation would not require conventional human-made smartphone design sensibilities. It’d likely look radically different from anything we’ve ever seen before.

@northern haste
 
@Background Pony #E424  
Plus, if its set in the far future, of course technology is gonna become more advanced and noticeable. Imagine if a Roman Citizen suddenly got dropped into modern day world…

@Background Pony #E424  
Using an every day object is not pandering

flap flap flap She’s such a cutie! <3
 
I’m utterly conflicted that my favorite G5 pony thus far just so happens to be the one using a dreaded smartphone >.< I can’t stand pandering like that in any type of media, especially where it doesn’t make logical sense.

Wow, something went wrong with the rendering when it was uploaded.