It's hump day, and the week is all downhill from here... Today we have a few stories dealing with competition in the smartphone and smart speaker markets:

• A head-to-head comparison of the iPhone X and Google's Pixel 2 results in a solid win for the iPhone X...but not for Siri
• A Wall Street analyst thinks Apple is working on a cheaper version of the HomePod due to lagging sales
• That same analyst foresees dual-SIM versions of the iPhone coming later this year, both on a less expensive LCD phone and a larger iPhone X
• The continuing lawsuit battle between Qualcomm and Apple is starting to hurt Qualcomm badly, with rumors of layoffs at the San Diego-based chipmaker