The Magician Who Fooled the App Store With a Virtual Beer

Jan de Vries · 2026-09-25

In July 2008, Steve Jobs and Apple were gearing up for the launch of the App Store. Jobs told The New York Times: "The quality and the sophistication of the applications you can write for the iPhone is in a different class." He wasn't wrong. The App Store launched with over 500 apps, carefully chosen to show off the iPhone's latest tricks—especially the accelerometer. There were games, productivity tools, social networks, and, of course, apps designed purely to flaunt what the device could do. Among that first batch, one app stood out: a virtual pint of beer that sloshed around as you tilted your phone. It was called iBeer, and it became an instant hit. In this article, we'll explore the story behind iBeer, the magician who created it, and how a fake beer became a defining example of the early App Store. ### The magic behind iBeer The man behind iBeer was Steve Sheraton, a magician and creator of tech-based illusions. Before the iPhone, Sheraton had already experimented with turning mobile devices into convincing virtual drinks. He made E-spresso, a video trick that made your phone look like it held a cup of coffee. But the iPhone gave him something the Palm Pilot didn't: an accelerometer. That meant he could make the illusion react to how you held the phone. Tilt it, and the liquid moves. Turn it far enough, and the beer appears to pour toward the edge of the screen. Simple idea, but for 2008, it was remarkably convincing. Before the App Store even existed, Sheraton had already found an audience. He uploaded a video of the iPhone "beer-drinking" illusion to YouTube, where it racked up millions of views. People wanted to know how to get the trick themselves, so Sheraton started selling the video file for just over $2. At its peak, he was reportedly making a few thousand dollars a day. When Apple prepared the App Store for launch, iBeer was a perfect demo of the iPhone's capabilities. It used the accelerometer, touchscreen, and high-quality display, and it required almost no explanation. You didn't need to know what an accelerometer was. Someone could just hand you an iPhone, tilt it toward their mouth, and pretend to drink. On July 10, 2008, when the App Store opened, iBeer was among the first apps available. Sheraton kept the price the same, and according to his later accounts, the app quickly shot to the top of the charts. ### The copycats arrive But iBeer's success also revealed something else about the new App Store: if an idea worked, it could be copied fast. Later in 2008, Molson Coors, the Canadian-American brewing giant, released iPint, a free app with a strikingly similar virtual beer. Unlike iBeer, though, iPint was basically an ad for Carling beer. Sheraton and his company, Hottrix, weren't happy. They took legal action. The dispute highlighted a strange reality of the early App Store: a developer could create something seemingly trivial, distribute it to millions, and suddenly find themselves competing with major corporations. It was a sign of how quickly the economics of software were changing. ### Why iBeer mattered Looking back, it's easy to dismiss iBeer as a novelty. In many ways, it was. It didn't make you more productive, help you navigate, or connect you with friends. It made your phone look like a pint of beer. But that was also its appeal. In 2008, the smartphone was still new and a bit magical. The idea that a phone could respond to how you tilted it, display a realistic liquid, and even pour—that was impressive. iBeer captured that sense of wonder. It showed that the App Store wasn't just about utility; it was about delight. And it all started with a magician who saw the iPhone not just as a tool, but as a stage for illusions. iBeer may not have changed the world, but it changed how we thought about apps. It proved that even the simplest ideas could go viral—and that in the App Store, magic could be just a tilt away.