SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PRE-RENDERING AN AUDIO REPRESENTATION OF TEXTUAL CONTENT FOR SUBSEQUENT PLAYBACK

A system configured to pre-render an audio representation of textual content for subsequent playback includes a network, a source server, and a requesting device. The source server is configured to provide a plurality of textual content across the network. The requesting device includes a download unit, a signature generating unit, a signature comparing unit, and a text to speech conversion unit. The download unit is configured to download the plurality of textual content from the source server across the network. The signature generating unit is configured to generate a unique signature for each of the textual content. The signature comparing unit is configured to compare each unique signature with a prior corresponding signature to determine whether the corresponding textual content has changed. The text to speech conversion unit is configured to convert the textual content to speech when the textual content has been determined to have changed.