Apple isn't a software company per se--they have a lot of EE's, other engineers, industrial designers, and so forth. These people have different cultures from hackers, by and large. But by and large they seem to demand the most from everyone they hire, including programmers. They don't have the compulsion to fill up on staff as much as they want to have the best people.
It's impossible to tell without working there (and once you work there you probably lose the privilege of speaking openly about this stuff) but it seems Apple is just a generalized, multidisciplinary example of what pg's talking about.
But for all that, I don't think Apple's ever found themselves with the reputation of the type of single-minded overarching elitist snobbery as the backbone of the hiring process in the same way Google has.
"...but they didn't have the kind of single-minded, almost obnoxiously elitist focus on hiring..."
Apple seems to want to hire the best, but the best being based on actual capability instead of the school you went to.
The similarities are more important than the differences. Apple and Google both want to hire the best damn people they can, Google just values academic background a little more.
It's impossible to tell without working there (and once you work there you probably lose the privilege of speaking openly about this stuff) but it seems Apple is just a generalized, multidisciplinary example of what pg's talking about.