Apple may have dumped ExpressCard from their new MacBook Pro models, but the PCMCIA are going ahead with the official release of ExpressCard Standard 2.0. With 2.0, transfer speeds are reportedly boosted by up to 10-times compared to ExpressCard 1.2 and there’s also support for SuperSpeed USB 3.0.

The up to 5Gbps bandwidth will make ExpressCard 2.0 even more useful for adding eSATA ports and high-speed storage like the latest breed of SSDs. PCMCIA also sees it being useful for streaming video and audio adapters. ExpressCard 2.0 is also backward-compatible with previous cards, so existing accessories will all work in the new sockets.

SanDisk is getting into ExpressCard technology with the unveiling today of a new related product line up. The first offering of the SanDisk Express line is the SanDisk Express Card, available in November.

The SanDisk Express Card is targeted towards professional videographers and photographers who record with gear which uses ExpressCards rather than magnetic tape, hard discs or optical discs. The card will be available in 8GB and 16GB sizes, priced at around $500 and $900 respectively. One will, says SanDisk, be able to get recording time for high-definition video capture, at 35 megabits per second, to be approximately 30 minutes on the 8GB card and 60 minutes on the 16GB card.

SanDisk today unveiled a multi-card ExpressCard adapter for use with notebook computers which sport ExpressCard slots. This new device is priced at around $30 and should be available in September.

The SanDisk Multi Card ExpressCard Adapter slides into the ExpressCard slot of a laptop computer without need for software or drivers to install. The adapter supports six card formats: SD, SDHC, MultiMediaCard, MMCplus, Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick PRO Duo and Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo.