Ancient Programming

It is pretty easy to create a drop shadow or immerse effect like this in iOS.

Here is two static helper methods I created to do the trick.
The first method is capable of dropping a shadow from one view onto another:

+ (void)dropColor:(UIColor *)dropColor from:(UIView *)dropFromView onto:(UIView *)toView x:(CGFloat)x y:(CGFloat)y {
    CGFloat cornerRadius = [[dropFromView layer] cornerRadius];
    UIView *shadow = [[[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:dropFromView.frame] autorelease];
    [[shadow layer] setCornerRadius:cornerRadius];
    CGRect dropRect = dropFromView.frame;
    shadow.frame = CGRectMake(dropRect.origin.x + x, dropRect.origin.y + y, dropRect.size.width, dropRect.size.height);
    [shadow setBackgroundColor:dropColor];
    [toView insertSubview:shadow belowSubview:dropFromView];
}

The second takes advantage of the first and creates an effect that makes it looks like the first view is immersed into the other:

+ (void)immerse:(UIView *)immerseView into:(UIView *)toView depth:(CGFloat)depth {
    CGFloat x = 0.7;
    CGFloat y = 1.4;
    [UIUtil dropColor:[UIColor darkGrayColor] from:immerseView onto:toView x:-1 * x * depth y:-1 * y * depth];
    [UIUtil dropColor:[UIColor whiteColor] from:immerseView onto:toView x:x*depth y:y*depth];
}

The following effect can be added to a tableview by doing this:

- (void)viewDidLoad {
    [super viewDidLoad];
    [[_tableView layer] setCornerRadius:5];
    [UIUtil immerse:_tableView into:self.view depth:1.5];
}