After getting my bearings with the "Raspberry Pi Pico Python SDK" eBook, I checked out the Pico W-specific "Connecting to the Internet with Raspberry Pi Pico W". This volume is even smaller at 49 pages, fitting for an quick introduction to potential of Pico W connectivity. It felt to me like the word "Connecting" in the title is quite literal: this title covers how to establish a connection and not much else on what to do after you connect. Perhaps the authors believed that networking APIs are common with existing platforms. So maybe once we get a Pico W set up enough to connect, everything else will be the same as existing general resources out on the internet? That seems unlikely but maybe a valid stance for an introductory title.

But while the word "Connecting" might be literal, the word "Internet" is not. This book actually goes beyond Pico W's WiFi connectivity and also covers its Bluetooth LE capability. BLE is not typically used to connect to the internet. It appears the Pico W is also capable of Classic Bluetooth, but this book doesn't spend much time on that beyond mentioning it was possible.

This book also covers each concept twice: once with the C/C++ SDK, then again with the MicroPython SDK. Seeing them side by side really brought home the fact MicroPython code is generally easier to read. But sadly, the language can only do so much. Bluetooth LE is full of esoteric overhead that needs to be configured no matter the language. An uninformative barrier against beginners trying to learn the technology. While reading one particular example's MicroPython code in the PDF, I got tired trying to parse BLE minutiae and it occurred to me... I don't remember reading anything equally dry in the C section. I scrolled back up and that's when I realized the book authors gave up: there was no C section. Instead of cluttering the book with a bunch of code dealing with C overhead plus BLE overhead, they just said the example code is on their GitHub repository. With a URL for the C developers who care to go wading through it all.

This book tried to cover WiFi, Bluetooth Classic, and Bluetooth LE connectivity enabled by a Pico W over its non-W counterpart. And cover those topics via both C and MicroPython languages. That's a lot of ground to cover in 49 pages, resulting in a book that feels more like a Getting Started pamphlet. Which is a valuable resource! It was just less than what I had hoped.