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Opera opens new Poland office; to work on browser for Verizon customers

9 Comments
 Published November 20th, 2006 3:56 PM EST By Daniel Goldman

Earlier this month Opera Software opened up a new office in Poland.

The story behind this new office is quite interesting. We got a call from this Polish company that was about to lay off all its employees and close shop. They called us asking if we’d like to hire any of them. For some odd reason Opera gets calls like this all the time.

This company had many highly technical mobile phone developers and engineers. We hired only the best of the best from the now defunct company. Twenty three of them now work in Opera Software’s mobile and devices divisions.

In addition to porting the Opera browser to the Linux platform on devices, they will also work on porting the Opera Mobile and Opera Mini browsers to the BREW platform. Most Verizon mobile phones (in the United States) run the on the BREW platform. This means that Verizon Wireless customers will soon be able to use Opera Mini on their phones too.

Opera is able to run on about 70 percent of the US mobile phones, the other 30 percent run on the BREW. Our goal is to get the Verizon Wireless users on board the Opera Mini experience too.

A hearty welcome to my new colleagues in Poland. :)

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9 Comments

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  1. 1 quiris Nov 20th, 2006 at 5:29 pm
    using Opera Opera 9.10 on Windows Windows XP

    We got a call from this Polish company

    Which company?

  2. 2 marcoos Nov 21st, 2006 at 2:00 am
    using Mozilla Mozilla 1.9a1 on Linux Linux

    Benq-Siemens apparently.

  3. 3 WildEnte Nov 21st, 2006 at 9:14 pm
    using Opera Opera 9.02 on Windows Windows XP

    I knew Benq-Siemens had trouble in Germany, but in Poland?

  4. 4 WildAnt Nov 22nd, 2006 at 4:51 am
    using Lynx Lynx 2.8.4rel.1

    There were never company named BenQ-Siemens. The company name was and is BenQ (BenQ Poland sp. z o.o. for Wroclaw site) and they were making (and still) products under BenQ Siemens brand.

  5. 5 WildAnt Nov 22nd, 2006 at 6:58 am
    using Lynx Lynx 2.8.4rel.1

    There was never a company called BenQ-Siemens. The company name was and is BenQ (BenQ Poland sp. z o.o. for Wroclaw site) and they were making (and still are) products under BenQ Siemens brand.

  6. 6 smyru Nov 25th, 2006 at 4:03 am
    using Opera Opera 9.01 on FreeBSD FreeBSD

    The people worked for R&D center of mobile Siemens division, that was sold to Benq and recently decided to be shut down by Benq.

  7. 7 jc Nov 30th, 2006 at 8:30 pm
    using Mozilla Firefox Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.8 on Windows Windows XP

    Yea! About time!……. Verizon puts a crimp in all its customer’s phones!

  8. 8 Greg Jan 7th, 2007 at 1:17 am
    using Safari Safari 419.3 on Mac OS Mac OS X

    Man, I’ll be the first in line to pay $30 for Opera for my V3m on my damned brew enabled phone.

  9. 9 Kevin Roberts May 13th, 2007 at 11:52 pm
    using Mozilla Firefox Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.3 on Mac OS Mac OS X

    OMG! THANK YOU! I’ve been wanting to use Opera on my phone since forever…but i’ve been stuck with verizon which just HAS to be different and run BREW instead of java. I really hope you guys finish this project for verizon phones soon! Thanks again!

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Opera Watch, an Opera browser blog, is run by Daniel Goldman, who used to work for Opera Software as a Technical Evangelist.

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About Opera


Q: What is Opera?
A: Opera is one of the most powerful Web browsers around. A Web browser is the program that allows you to view Web pages. Opera is well known for innovation for PC browsers and bringing the full web to mobile phones and devices.

Q: Is Opera free?
A: Absolutely free.

Q: Why should I download a browser? Doesn't my computer already come with one for free?
A: It's about getting more out of the time you spend on the internet. Opera is designed to be much faster than these browsers and gives you powerful features that the default browser lacks. Default browsers like Internet Explorer are also more likely to be subjected to dangerous software such as viruses and spyware.

Q: Will Opera keep me safe from fraudulent websites and malicious hackers?
A: According to Secunia, a respected firm that tracks security in browsers, Opera has the best reputation and track record when it comes to browser security. Keeping our users safe from security vulnerabilities, fraudulent websites, and malicious hackers is a top priority for Opera. Opera is maintained by hundreds of engineers, developers and security experts who are constantly looking to make the browser even safer.

Q: Doesn't Opera copy all of their features from other browsers?
A: Absolutely not. In fact, many of the features that are popular in other browsers today were invented and pioneered by Opera a long time ago. Opera invented the precursor to tabs (in 1994), Page Zoom (1994), was the first browser to block pop-up ads (2000), first to add a Search field in the browser toolbar (2000), Sessions (1996), deleting private data (2000), Mouse Gestures (2000), User JavaScript (2005), BitTorrent support (2005), Widgets (2006), Speed Dial (2007), and much more.

Q: Does Opera support extensions, such as those found in Firefox?
A: Much of the functionality provided through Firefox extensions is already built directly into Opera, so you don't have to download additional extensions in Opera. In addition, Opera is highly customizable and supports all standard plug-ins.

Q: Can I also use Opera on my mobile phone?
A: Yes. And your Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS or almost any connected device and mobile phones. Opera Mobile oftens comes preinstalled from the manufacturers, but if it doesn't you can install Opera Mini which runs on nearly all phones.

Q: This all sounds great, so how do I download Opera?
A: -- Opera on your computer
-- Opera Mini on your phone
-- Opera Mobile on your phone
-- or learn more about Opera at www.opera.com