Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Mobile
  3. News

It looks like Verizon’s Droid Turbo 2 giveaway left several burnt contestants in its wake

Williams Pelegrin
By

Droid Turbo 2
Image used with permission by copyright holder
When Verizon revealed the “shatterproof” Droid Turbo 2 last week, Big Red also announced a giveaway as a way to promote the handset. Unfortunately, the only thing the giveaway seemingly promoted was the carrier’s inability to hold a contest without serious issues, reports PhoneArena.

Using the #WhyNotWednesday hashtag, Verizon kicked off Droid Seeker, a contest disguised as an online game that gave 200 lucky winners a free Droid Turbo 2. After heading to the Droid Seeker website and entering your phone number and Twitter sign-in credentials, you were then teleported to a city at night. Your objective was to find the Droid Turbo 2 hidden in the city within 30 seconds.

Recommended Videos

If you found the smartphone, you were a winner, with a PhoneArena reader allegedly one of the winners. Unfortunately, even though he was reportedly number 40 with 198 Droid Turbo 2 smartphones still available, he ran into technical difficulties while playing the game. More specifically, the game seemingly froze for hours, pushing the reader out of the running for a free handset.

He then contacted Verizon on Twitter, with the company offering him a $50 gift card as an apology for the technical errors. A quick search of the #WhyNotWednesday hashtag on Twitter, however, revealed that the reader was not the only person to have had technical issues with Droid Seeker:

Of course, there were also many winners, and it’s unrealistic to expect any contest to run 100 percent smoothly. Regardless, based on the aforementioned Twitter interactions and others, this contest’s losers seemingly have valid complaints to throw Verizon’s way.

Topics
Williams Pelegrin
Williams Pelegrin
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Williams is an avid New York Yankees fan, speaks Spanish, resides in Colorado, and has an affinity for Frosted Flakes. Send…
Best smartwatch deals: Samsung, Google, Apple, and Garmin
A woman receives a call on her Google Pixel Watch.

Fitness, fashion, function, all of the above. Pick your poison, but either way, a smartwatch makes a great tech accessory. Even better, right now's a great way to save with a lot of smartwatch deals going on across several retailers. You’ll find several of the best smartwatches and best fitness trackers with their prices discounted right now, and among the current smartwatch deals are brands like Garmin, Apple, Samsung, and Google. With so many ways to save on a smartwatch out there, we’ve tracked down the best smartwatch deals and compiled them all in one place. So whether you’re in the market for an Apple Watch or a Pixel Watch, a Galaxy Watch or a Garmin, read up on the best smartwatch deals below.
Best Fitbit deals

You'd be forgiven for thinking Fitbit left the scene a while ago. They haven't and they're still providing excellent smartwatches like the Fitbit Sense 2. It's specifically designed to help you stress less, sleep better, and live healthier. All-day stress detection can help you recognize stressful events and manage them to carry on stress-free. Sleep profiles and sleep reports teach you about the quality of your previous night’s sleep. Heart rate tracking and fitness tracking are part of the package, and the Fitbit Sense 2 even has built-in GPS. Of course, that's just one model from the brand.

Read more
This is your best look yet at the Samsung Galaxy S24 series
Leaked renders of Galaxy S24 series in purple.

Just over a week ago, a handful of purported real-life shots of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra appeared online predicting a slightly refined look. Now, the folks over at Windows Report have shared alleged product renders of the entire Galaxy S24 trio ahead of a rumored January 27 launch. 
It seems the in-hand photos of the Ultra trim, which appeared on X (formerly Twitter) a few days ago, were the real deal. Samsung hasn’t given any aesthetic makeover to the top-tier model -- the flat sides are here to stay, and so is the floating ring aesthetic for the camera lenses at the back.
The only two key changes are a different material for the frame and a couple of new colors. Shoppers will have the option of a new yellow shade that was recently seen on the Samsung Store-exclusive variant of its Galaxy Z flip foldable phone. Then there's a new purple trim, which looks identical to the same shade on the Galaxy S23 FE, down to the contrasting metal frame polish.
Gray and black will be the other shades on the table. The biggest change is that Samsung, following in the footsteps of the iPhone 15 Pro, is reportedly using Titanium for the Galaxy S24 Ultra. The regular and Plus variants will likely stick with armored aluminum and a glass back with Corning Gorilla Glass protection.

The rumored specification list is your usual flagship-tier affair and includes Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, a 120Hz OLED display, 12GB RAM, up to 1TB storage, and a 5,000mAh battery.
The report notes that the vapor chamber cooling system inside the S24 Ultra will be nearly twice as big as its predecessor's, which was already in a league of its own. Buyers can expect the phone to maintain its cool during demanding tasks such as gaming, high-res video capture, and generative AI-aligned tasks.
The camera hardware also remains the same as this year's Ultra phone, save for a curious change to the zoom camera. Instead of a 10-megapixel periscope camera with an industry-leading 10x optical zoom output that we saw on the Galaxy S23 Ultra, the upcoming phone is said to embrace a 50-megapixel sensor, but with a lower 5x optical zoom range.

Read more
Best Apple deals: AirPods, Apple Watch, iPad, and MacBook
dell xps 15 vs macbook pro 16 apple ry 14 1200x9999

Apple products are praised for their high quality and interconnectivity, but that quality does come with a price. This is one large reason why we look for great Apple deals to shop, as it sometimes really is worth the wait. To help you out, we've compiled some of our favorite deals on all of the major categories of Apple products. Try these deals first next time you're looking to expand or upgrade your Apple collection.
Best iPad deals

Whether you're wanting to get a standard iPad, an iPad Air, or an iPad Mini, their is a sale on for you at the moment. If, however, one of the iPad Pro models is among the best iPads for you, don't worry too much about holding off. These deals are small, typically taking off around 10% of the price, and are more of a bonus if you already wanted the model rather than an incentive to choose it over something you really wanted. Meanwhile, if you're willing to go refurbished, our larger collection of the best iPad deals has larger deals and you can find an iPad Pro.

Read more