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, the system comprising:

• a requesting device comprising:
• a memory configured to store a computer program;
• and
• a processor configured to execute the computer program, wherein the computer program comprises:
• a download unit configured to download first textual content of a content type from a remote source server across a computer network;
• a signature generating unit configured to locally generate a first signature from the downloaded first textual content, wherein the first signature identifies the first textual content;
• a signature comparing unit configured to locally compare the first signature with a second signature identifying a previously downloaded second textual content of the same content type to determine whether the second textual content differs from the first textual content;
• a text to speech conversion unit configured to convert the first textual content to speech only when the signature comparing unit determines that the second textual content differs from the first textual content;
• and
• wherein, when resources of the requesting device are limited, the requesting device is configured to transfer the speech to the remote source server and remove the speech from itself.