Objective-C

Swift is great, but what if your application relies on a library that’s written using C++? Luckily Objective-C++ is here to save the day. In this article, Toptal Freelance Swift Developer Josip Bernat integrates C++ code with Swift by using wrapper classes as a bridge and then creates an app that recognizes the Toptal logo using OpenCV.

The Model-View-Controller (MVC) design pattern is great for the longevity and maintainability of an iOS application’s codebase... but you may find yourself adding similar functions to multiple models as your app grows. In cases such as networking, moving common logic out of your model classes and into singleton helper classes can be a better approach. In this article, I’ll teach you how to set up a centralized singleton networking object that, decoupled from micro-level MVC components, can be reused throughout your application.

Apple's iOS is the second-largest mobile operating system in the world. It also has a very high adoption rate, with more than 85 percent of users on the latest version. These highly engaged users have high expectations: If your app has bugs, you'll hear about it. And once the one-star reviews start rolling in, it's hard to recover. In this article, Toptal Software Engineer Nikita Tuk outlines the 10 most common mistakes that developers make—and how to avoid them.

Smooth animations and flawless transitions are key to perceived performance in modern mobile applications. Without the right tools, tuning iOS animation for efficiency can be a challenge in itself. In this article, Toptal engineer Stefan Progovac demonstrates the role of Instruments, a sophisticated set of performance profiling tools for iOS, discussing how they can help you understand animation performance bottlenecks and some strategies for working around them.

Spotlight search in Apple iOS 9, compared to earlier versions, has been made much more prominent and personal. With suggestions from Siri and integration opportunities for third-party apps, iPhone's search functionality is no longer limited to the scope of Apple's own apps. In this article, Toptal engineer Richard Forsythe explores some iOS SDK functionalities that allow apps to make content available to the user via Spotlight search.

Apple has released a fully functional WatchKit and SDK that enables iOS developers with all the tools to start building their Apple Watch applications. This article provides quick overview of the Apple Watch functionalities from a developers perspective.

Since Apple's launch of Swift this past June, many iOS developers have been struggling with the question of if, how, and when to transition from Objective-C to Swift. This article explores some important points to consider before jumping into Swift development.

After 6 years of improving and working on Objective-C, Apple decided to throw another challenge at developers. Once again, iOS developers will need to learn a new programming language: Swift. Swift 1.0 is already a stable and strong development platform, which is sure to evolve in interesting ways over the coming years. It is a perfect moment to start exploring this new language, as it is the future of iOS development.

I often hear iOS developers ask some variant of the same key question: "What's the best way to develop a UI in iOS: through Storyboards, NIBs, or code?" Answers to this question, explicitly or implicitly, tend to assume that there's a mutually exclusive choice to be made, one that is often addressed upfront, before development. I'm of the opinion that there's no single choice to be made. Rather, each option has its strengths and weaknesses—and there's no need to use any one of them in isolation.