Last week's gathering of The Verge staff from around the globe brought together many things. Ideas, friendships... diseases. Mostly the latter, in fact — think of it as a cross between Outbreak, Contagion, and "Genesis" from season seven of Star Trek: The Next Generation. And as we each continue to fight our own battles for the betterment of our respective upper respiratory tracts, the show, as they say, must go on — and that is especially true for this week.

Stories of the day:

• Amazon: Kindle Fire HD users can opt-out of ads after all
• Steam's 'Big Picture' mode beta coming today, watch a video walkthrough now
• iPhone 5 will support some LTE networks globally, WSJ says
• Sprint LTE launching in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, 100 more cities in 'coming months'
• T-Mobile ramps up unlocked iPhone support ahead of Apple’s big launch
• Rumor: new iPod touch with 4-inch display to debut alongside iPhone 5
• Sequel Title Confirmed – ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’