i would like to emulate that light flare effect of pushed Plain UIButtons in the UIToolBar for my custom buttons when pushed. it it possible to access this effect programatically without using UIToolBar?
UIButton has a property called something like showsHighlightWhenTouched which you can set to YES. It can also be turned on using Interface Builder.
I think plain (non-bordered) buttons on toolbars have it set to YES automatically, otherwise the default value is NO. Setting it to YES should give you what you need.