Short one this week!

When using CATextLayer, it's common to change both the frame/bounds as well as the string property. You might find that even if you precede it with:

[CATransaction setValue:kCFBooleanTrue forKey:kCATransactionDisableActions];

the built-in animation still kicks in and animates the content change in an odd manner (since the bounds has also changed). What you need, to disable that is:

textLayer.actions = @{@"contents":  [NSNull null]};

There are various keys you can use to disable built-in animations such as kCAOnOrderIn and kCAOnOrderOut.