I thought I'd witnessed an impressive milestone in the annals of retail marketing Sunday when I came upon a BestBuy vending machine in Halifax's Stanfield Airport that dispenses iPads. Two hours later, in the Icelandair departure lounge at Boston's Logan Airport, Brookstone trumped BestBuy with its display of personal helicopter drones. For US$299, you can have your own Parrot AR Drone Quadricopter, equipped with two HD video cameras (one facing front and the other pointing earthward), all controlled by an app on your iPhone or iPad. Steve from the Brookstone store gave Balgovind Pande and me a demo: [Video link] Parrot claims battery life sufficient for...