How to end a long phone conversation politely without hurting the caller?

While I must say that partially covering up the phone while yelling, "what? an emergency? oh no!" and then coming back to the person sympathetically understanding why you suddenly have to be ripped away from the conversation... it is not always the most graceful exit.

Here are a list of possible strategies you can try. While they may vary in politeness, I can tell you that they are all very effective.

1. In a brief pause in the conversation, look at a clock, and say, "oh my gosh I didn't realize what time it was, I was supposed to leave to meet someone ten minutes ago." This should wrap up the conversation nicely, it implies that you were so wrapped up in the conversation that you lost track of time, yet now that you once again know what time it is you have to go.
2. Call your phone from a cell phone or other land line, click over to the call waiting for a few seconds, and then come back to the conversation explaining that your friend just broke up her boyfriend and is a total mess and you are so sorry but you have to comfort her. (Boyfriend/girlfriend, either will do the trick). NOTE: this also works if you don't have another phone to call from. Tell the person you are talking to you got call waiting, and then press the MUTE button for a few seconds, then unmute. It sounds the same as if you really switched over to another call, and yes, it works like a charm.
3. If the person won't stop talking or give you a millisecond to get a work in, just blurt out, "Oh shoot, my battery is about to die. Let me call you back in..." Hang up the phone. Then turn off your cell phone so that if the person calls back they believe that the phone really died. This one is really lame, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

Apparently I can't think of any ways of terminating a phone conversation that don't include making up some sort of lie. But the truth is, if you want to get off the phone and have no urgent reason to- you have no other choice. The last thing your friend wants to think is that you got bored of talking to them and would rather sit in silence or stare at their computer screen than hear their voice. These three tricks work like a charm every time.