Old question, but I have a new answer that is supported in iOS 5 onwards (also I'm using LLVM 4.0 literals)
[[UITabBarItem appearance] setTitleTextAttributes:@{ NSForegroundColorAttributeName : [UIColor whiteColor] }
forState:UIControlStateNormal];
[[UITabBarItem appearance] setTitleTextAttributes:@{ NSForegroundColorAttributeName : [UIColor blueColor] }
forState:UIControlStateSelected];
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