Recently developed EEG systems are still too cumbersome to be used in daily-life situations. A transparent EEG would not only be portable and motion-tolerant, it would also feature low visibility and generally minimal interference with daily-life activities. In order to achieve these long-term goals, we use smartphones for EEG acquisition, stimulus presentation and online signal processing. In addition, we develop ear-EEG technology to capture meaningful brain activity unobtrusively. I will summarize our recent work showing that smartphones can handle EEG acquisition and experimental control reasonably well, and that they facilitate the combined recording of EEG and motion sensor signals. I will also report on the cEEGrids (www.ceegrid.com), flex-printed electrodes placed around the ear. While challenges remain to be tackled, our results document a proof of concept readiness level for both, smartphone EEG and ear-EEG. They will be indispensable for the unobtrusive monitoring of brain states in daily-life situations.