Loading an image into UIImage asynchronously

In iOS 6 and later dispatch_get_current_queue gives deprecation warnings.

Here is an alternative that is a synthesis of the @ElJay answer above and the article by @khanlou here.

Create a category on UIImage:

UIImage+Helpers.h

@interface UIImage (Helpers)

+ (void) loadFromURL: (NSURL*) url callback:(void (^)(UIImage *image))callback;

@end

UIImage+Helpers.m

#import "UIImage+Helpers.h"

@implementation UIImage (Helpers)

+ (void) loadFromURL: (NSURL*) url callback:(void (^)(UIImage *image))callback {
    dispatch_queue_t queue = dispatch_get_global_queue(DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_HIGH, 0ul);
    dispatch_async(queue, ^{
        NSData * imageData = [NSData dataWithContentsOfURL:url];
        dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
            UIImage *image = [UIImage imageWithData:imageData];
            callback(image);
        });
    });
}

@end

I wrote a custom class to do just this, using blocks and GCD:

WebImageOperations.h

#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

@interface WebImageOperations : NSObject {
}

// This takes in a string and imagedata object and returns imagedata processed on a background thread
+ (void)processImageDataWithURLString:(NSString *)urlString andBlock:(void (^)(NSData *imageData))processImage;
@end

WebImageOperations.m

#import "WebImageOperations.h"
#import <QuartzCore/QuartzCore.h>

@implementation WebImageOperations


+ (void)processImageDataWithURLString:(NSString *)urlString andBlock:(void (^)(NSData *imageData))processImage
{
    NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:urlString];

    dispatch_queue_t callerQueue = dispatch_get_current_queue();
    dispatch_queue_t downloadQueue = dispatch_queue_create("com.myapp.processsmagequeue", NULL);
    dispatch_async(downloadQueue, ^{
        NSData * imageData = [NSData dataWithContentsOfURL:url];

        dispatch_async(callerQueue, ^{
            processImage(imageData);
        });
    });
    dispatch_release(downloadQueue);
}

@end

And in your ViewController

    - (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{

    // Pass along the URL to the image (or change it if you are loading there locally)
    [WebImageOperations processImageDataWithURLString:entry.photo andBlock:^(NSData *imageData) {
    if (self.view.window) {
        UIImage *image = [UIImage imageWithData:imageData];

        cell.photo.image = image;
    }

    }];
}

It is very fast and will load the images without affecting the UI or scrolling speed of the TableView.

*** Note - This example assumes ARC is being used. If not, you will need to manage your own releases on objects)