When you sign a two year contract with your wireless carrier, you probably know there's a termination fee if you want to get out early. You may think that fee could be waived if you could demonstrate a real need to end your contract, but this sad story suggests otherwise. In fact, it's easier to break an apartment lease than it is to get out of a cell phone contract. So if you need to get out of your contract but your pleas fall on deaf ears, how do you get out without emptying your wallet? Here's how.

Navigate the Customer Service Maze

Before you do anything drastic, you should always see if you can get your wireless provider to come around to your cause. They won't want to lose you as a customer, but most companies will make some kind of exemption if you talk to the right person and have a good reason. If you're moving because of work or a compelling personal reason (death in the family, etc.) to a location they don't cover, are a soldier who's being deployed, or you've lost your job and are unable to continue paying your contract, they'll usually let you out or work with you on a compromise. Photo by Brad P.

However, don't expect to just call up and have the first person you speak to solve your problem. You may need to call back several times or escalate your issue. Here are some more tips to cut through corporate bureaucracy and get your carrier to listen to you. Don't be afraid to use the company's social media channels to your advantage, or go straight to the top and contact corporate executives.

Trade Your Contract with Someone Else In Your Boat

No one actually likes wireless contracts, and you're not the only person who wants to get out of theirs. Odds are there's someone out there who's trying to get out of their contract with the carrier you want to join, and vice versa. Check out services like Cellswapper, Celltrade, or TradeMyCellular that all play matchmaker between people who want out of their contract with one carrier, and people who want into shorter-term contracts with another. If you have six months left on your T-Mobile contract but you're moving to an area served by Verizon, for example, you can pair up with someone who's willing to trade their 18 months remaining on Verizon for your 6 months on T-Mobile. Even better, the service can find someone who wants only a short-term T-Mobile contract—the service handles the paperwork, and you send out your phone, cover the transfer fee, and walk away contract-free.

Find a Wireless Carrier Willing to Buy Out Your Contract

It's not terribly common, but some wireless providers are so eager for new customers that they're willing to buy you out of your old contract, and pay down whatever early termination fee you may have. The big carriers shy away from offers like this, but smaller ones and MVNOs (mobile virtual network operators, or companies that buy the rights to resell a big carrier's bandwidth under their own name. Boost Mobile, Credo Mobile, and Virgin Mobile are all examples of MVNOs) often bend the rules to bring in new customers.

For example, new Tucows startup Ting is running a month-long contest to get you out of your contract (although that month is almost over, so act quickly!) They're willing to buy one lucky winner out of a contract or your termination fee, whichever is cheaper, every day this month. Considering their approach to the wireless business, you may want to consider it. Keep in mind though, even when Ting's promotion is over, other MVNOs may be willing to work with you when big carriers won't. Here's a full list of MVNOs in the United States and the carriers they resell from—you may even be able to keep your phone.

Hack the System

Finally, if none of the other tricks work, it's time to play a little dirty. We've talked about how contract changes are often a way to escape a long contract, so if your carrier has added new fees or changed the terms of your agreement recently, that may be your ticket out of there. Moneycrashers has some more tips, and while they were written for T-Mobile specifically, most will work with any carrier. Still, your mileage may vary—some of them are technicalities you may have to fight for. When the iPhone launched on Verizon Wireless, we offered up some more tips to get out of your contract without paying an early termination fee. Check them out—many of them work on any carrier, and for any phone. Photo by Jessica Spengler.

If playing dirty doesn't appeal to you, consider changing your contract to the absolute fewest number of minutes and smallest data allowance they offer. Cancel SMS messaging entirely, and trim your account to the bare minimum. Not only does this make you an undesirable customer, but the lower cost per month for the duration of your contract may be less than the termination fee, just spread out. Then sell the phone, remove it from your account, sign up with your preferred carrier, and walk away.

iOS (jailbroken): If you're using a third party turn-by-turn app (like our favorite, Waze) on your iPhone, you know how annoying it is that you can't just click on addresses and open them up in Waze. This simple jailbreak hack puts turn-by-turn navigation one tap away.

While some apps, like Yellow Pages, will let you open addresses in whatever application you want, most apps only open addresses in the default Maps app. Navigate From Maps adds a simple little button to the built-in Maps application that lets you open an address in whichever navigation apps are installed on your iPhone. In my case (see the screenshot above), that means Waze. I wish it could intercept those addresses and take me directly to Waze instead of having to take an extra step and go through Maps, but it's still a heck of a lot faster than copying and pasting the address into Waze.

Navigate From Maps is a $1.99 download for jailbroken iOS devices only.

Navigate From Maps | BigBoss

If you prefer a search engine other than Google, Bing, or Yahoo, you can add it to Safari on iOS with this jailbreak hack.

I found a way in the DuckDuckGo forums and it works great. All you need is a jailbroken iOS device with iFile installed.

1. Launch iFile and navigate to /User/Library/Safari. Open SearchEngines.plist with the Property List Viewer.
2. Go inside the SearchProviderList array and create a new Dictionary item with the plus button.
3. Inside that new, empty Dictionary item (should be number 4), add the following one by one. To add in the values after creating them, just selecting the item from the list.

   Name: ScriptingName; Type: String; Value: DuckDuckGo
   Name: SearchURLTemplate; Type: String; Value: http://www.duckduckgo.com/?q={searchTerms}
   Name: ShortName; Type: String; Value: DuckDuckGo
   Name: SuggestionsURLTemplate; Type: String; Value: http://clients1.google.com/complete/search?json=t&nolabels=t&client=iphonesafari&q={searchTerms} (Google's autocomplete service, substitute with another if you wish)
   Name: Default; Type: Boolean; Value: On

4. Back in the SearchProviderList array, look in each Dictionary (besides 4, which is the DuckDuckGo one you just made) to see which one has a boolean field called 'Default'. Delete the variable entirely (but leave the one in the DuckDuckGo dictionary). Ed. Note: I didn't find another Dictionary with the Default value, so I skipped this step.
5. Exit iFile and launch System Preferences. Go to Safari > Search Engine and select the new DuckDuckGo option you just created.
6. Close Safari in the multitasking bar (if applicable), then relaunch it and play with your new search engine!

It's much easier to do than the daunting wall of text above implies, and completely worth the outcome. Obviously, if you want to use a different search engine, you can do that too—you'll just have to find values for the Search and Suggest URLs. And, as always, be careful when messing with system files and do so at your own risk, although the above did work perfectly for me.

Ed. Note: The above trick worked perfectly for me too. I tried this with iExplorer on the desktop and it didn't work, though, so it looks like you'll have to go through iFile on your device. It'll take a bit longer, but it works like a charm.

How to Add a New Default Search Engine to Safari on the iPhone | #tips

From the Tips Box is where we round up our favorite reader submitted tips. Got a tip of your own to share? Email it to tips at lifehacker.com, or share it on our tips page.

Whether you just want to listen to music wirelessly or you want a comfortable headset to take and place phone calls when you're out and about or otherwise using your hands, a Bluetooth headset is a worthwhile purchase. Last week we asked you which Bluetooth headset you thought was the best for value, features, audio clarity, and call quality. Then we took a look at the five best Bluetooth headsets based on your nominations. Now we're back to highlight the overall winner.

Jawbone, with its flagship Era and Icon headsets, took the top spot with close to 46% of the votes cast. In second place with 26% was Plantronics, its Voyager Pro and HD lines making it a popular choice. The battle for third place was fierce, with Motorola edging out the competition 10.3% of the vote, and LG falling into fourth with 10.1% of the vote. Bringing up the rear in fifth place was Jabra, pulling in just under 8% of the overall vote.