MWC 2014: The 5 most frivolous pieces of tech from ShowStoppers

On the tech circuit, ShowStoppers is viewed as an opportunity for smaller companies to show off their products to a wide audience before the madness of Mobile World Congress begins.

Because the barrier to entry is much lower at this event - a booth costs a fraction of the price here of one at the mega-show that is MWC - you end up seeing a range of devices at ShowStoppers.

There are a few very innovative products with potentially bright futures (should the right investment company get involved), a handful of blatant 'me-too' products, and a number of decent enough ideas that will do well enough when they come to market.

But you also see a very small number of products that make you question why anyone in her right mind would think twice about buying them. Here are five such examples.

In the marketing materials for this, the InkCase is described as "a second screen for your phone".

It's essentially a case that has another screen on it, though this doesn't boast the same high definition as the one on your iPhone 5S or Galaxy S4. This one uses E Ink to display an image, the simple text of a custom-made app for fitness, or even a page from an eBook.

It's low power (which is cool), but it's also low resolution (which is not). This means pictures have a distinctly Game Boy look to them.

And while potentially turning your device into an eBook is novel, a) your phone probably already IS an eBook, and b) the screen has no inputs, making reading page after page a hassle.

Like most of the products in this article, Reticare is one that comes from a centre of positivity. When you break it down, though, it's difficult to get too excited about it.

Research has shown that you stress out your macula (a spot near the centre of your retina) when you look directly at LED lights, such as those in your tablet and smartphone.

The maculas work overtime to protect your eyes from being damaged, which is why it can feel tiring to look at a screen all day.

The Reticare is a thin tinted piece of plastic that is shaped to cover your phone. This dims the light being emitted, making it feel less harsh on your eyes.

That the company behind the Reticare is thinking about macula degeneration is fantastic, but probably the simplest solution to this issue is to turn down the brightness of your device.

The VBox is a unit that is connected to your digital TV receiver and your router. When you've connected all these up with wires, you can then stream live television, in high definition, to other devices in the house that are running the dedicated app.

I didn't have the heart to ask the VBox representative whether he'd heard of Netflix.

It's a neat idea - being able to watch multiple channels of content on various devices - but its creator assumes that a) the consumer's house has multiple handset and tablet devices but no more than one television, and b) that live television is the future of consuming that medium. Which it clearly isn't.

So, you could fork out cash for a device that does this, or you could sign up for a streaming service and gain access to all the on-demand, always-on content there.

I know what I'd choose.

These are some ridiculously powerful and absolutely gorgeous speakers.

The design of them is magnificent, with a natural yet futuristic look that's sleek and oddly dominant in a minimal sort of way.

The big selling point for them, beyond their incredible good looks, is that they're almost entirely wireless. They only need mains to power them. Beyond that, though, there's no need for visible cables, as the music they blast out is meant to come from an Apple device with AirPort Express (such as an iPad or iPhone).

Of course, this does mean that the entire time you want sweet tunes to be playing, your device is pretty much out of action, thus turning a sophisticated multi-purpose device into a very expensive dedicated MP3 player.

I still want a set, though, because - woof - they ARE very pretty. Then again, they're going to cost £9,000. Ouch.

BeeWi LED light bulb

Have you ever wanted to turn the light bulbs in your house a different colour while you yourself aren't in the house to see them change to that colour?

No? Well, the BeeWi light bulb might not be for you then. Because that's precisely what it does.

It's Bluetooth, it requires a SIM card, and it talks to another Bluetooth device that hooks up to your router. From there, you can send instructions via a dedicated app to change colours, adjust brightness, and so on.

Why you would want to do any of those things, I've no idea.