There are probably hundreds of thousands of devices out there that are smart enough to know about time zones but old enough that there no chance of a software update, for example APC UPSs and power strips used in data centres world wide and years beyond end of support.
I work for an international company based in the US, but I am not in the US myself. I have been trying for years to get our American colleagues to use three letter abbreviations for the month to avoid ambiguity, for example in global emails. With a couple of small exceptions, I have been unsuccessful in convincing them of the need to be clear in their written communication to people in the rest of the world.
The field isn't located at the north or south pole - you're not 400km away from it, you're immersed inside the field, and your compass is showing the local alignment of that field.
Just about anything with an EM field of its own will be stronger than that.
The earth's magnetic field is much weaker than a simple coil in a transformer, as can be easily demonstrated by holding a compass near said device and watching the needle align with that instead of the earth.
Yes, because a vision softly creeping left its seeds while I was sleeping.