We're now seeing reports on the phone's supposed specs, evidence of supply chain ripples and suspicious code in iOS4. Together, they make the strongest case yet for a January Verizon iPhone launch.

First came last week by Steve Cheney. He claims, citing unnamed sources, that "Apple has submitted orders for millions of units of Qualcomm CDMA chipsets for a Verizon iPhone run due in December." The phone, Cheney guesses, would be similar to the iPhone 4, except for maybe a fixed internal insulator to address signal-blocking issues with the external antenna. A December run could mean January availability.

A last week by John Gruber on Daring Fireball , that "the wheels are turning on N92, the CDMA variant of the iPhone 4."

DVice from an "inside source," who said the Verizon iPhone would have a 1.2GHz processor (the iPhone 4 processor is 1GHz), a larger screen and an internal antenna at Verizon's insistence. No information on launch date was given, and I'm instinctively skeptical of drastic design changes, but anything's possible in the rumor mill.

Finally, that a block of code from deep within iOS4 bypasses the need for iTunes activation. Apple reportedly introduces this code every year before a major product launch, allowing field testers to use new devices without going through iTunes. A source told BGR that the device in question is either a CDMA iPhone or a next-generation iPad.