Thanks for the replies thus far all.
With regards to side projects/portfolios, everything I've read recently indicates that there's a growing shift towards focusing on candidates with their own portfolios, given that it's never been easier to not only set up your own applications with user base, but to monetize it also. Having such a thing would also help me stand out amongst thousands of candidates who'll be going for these internships next year as we'll all most likely know the same languages, be versed in the same data structures and algorithms, have similar grades etc etc.
One such article
here
Guids, with regards to what kind of companies, well, I'll be primarily applying to places like Microsoft, Google, Facebook and Zynga (all big companies here in Ireland). They all run software engineer internship positions and are much sought after. Obviously there's quite a spectrum of software there.
Is iphone development still a good route to take? There seems to be a lot of focus on Android and Windows Phone 7 development recently and iphone seems to have taken the back seat.
Smart phone and facebook apps seem to be a "flashy" way to go, along with being an easy route to take into getting a user base, but I can't help feeling I'll be missing out on something if I don't learn to create normal applications that utilize databases or similar.