Patent ID: 8732232

Claim:
An audio player that is adapted to synchronize with a gateway device over a wireless communication link, comprising: a discovery component configured to detect a broadcast from the gateway device when the audio player is within a range of the wireless communication link and to respond to the broadcast with a broadcast acknowledgement message; a polling component configured to wait for a periodic poll message from the gateway device upon a determination that the gateway device is within the range, the poll message being different than the broadcast, and wherein the polling component responds with at least one poll response message (i) specifying an identity of the audio player, (ii) indicating to the gateway device that the audio player is still within the range of the wireless communication link, and (iii) indicating that a user of the audio player requests synchronization; a message component, executing on at least one processor, configured to handle a content query from the gateway device and to reply with a content response message, the content response message including a list of digital audio content stored on the audio player that the gateway device can compare with the digital audio content stored on the gateway device, so that the gateway device can determine new digital audio content for the audio player; and a synchronization component configured to receive, from the gateway device, the new digital audio content and to store the new digital audio content with the digital audio content already stored on the audio player, so that the digital audio content stored on the audio player is synchronized with the digital audio content stored on gateway device.