TJ Mullinax, a news producer at the Yakima Herald-Republic, had an interesting chat Thursday at the Whole Foods in South Lake Union.

There was an Italian man waiting for coffee sporting what looked to be one of the long-awaited iPhone 4 models in white.

Apple has repeatedly delayed the release of the white model and reports have surfaced of the company having trouble with manufacturing and discoloration.

The Italian said he was testing the device for Apple and it will go on sale in Europe in February. That's a bit earlier than the last release date -- the spring 2011 target that Apple provided in October.

The Italian told TJ his group at Apple was struggling to keep the edges from yellowing after several weeks of use but he was confident the new body will hold up, according to a writeup on TJ's blog.

TJ said the man also showed him how the antenna had been redesigned to fix a problem with signals dropping when you hold the phone a certain way.

I called Apple for more information and will update if I hear back.

It sounds legitimate, but I don't understand why an Italian visiting Seattle chose to get his coffee at Whole Foods.

Here's the picture TJ snapped and gave permission for me to post here: