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Yes, using the feat you prepare the spell with it ahead of time, if you are a caster that prepare spells. So, for example, a Magic Missile using the Silent Metamagic feat, would be a Silent Magic Missile and would be placed in a second level slot.
Rods you use as you cast the spell, so if you had a rod of Lesser Silent Metamagic, you could cast any of your 1st through 3rd level spells as a Silent spell, but only 3 spells/day.
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Yes, using the feat you prepare the spell with it ahead of time, if you are a caster that prepare spells. So, for example, a Magic Missile using the Silent Metamagic feat, would be a Silent Magic Missile and would be placed in a second level slot.
Rods you use as you cast the spell, so if you had a rod of Lesser Silent Metamagic, you could cast any of your 1st through 3rd level spells as a Silent spell, but only 3 spells/day.
And as a reminder to add more to the post above, you do not need the matching metamagic feat to use a metamagic rod or a metamagic rod to use the matching metamagic feat.
You can use both of them for one spell, as they are independent from each other.
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I think you understand the premise.
A wizard or cleric must apply metameagic ahead of time. A sorcer or oracle applies them at the time of casting. If the wizard wants to use Extend spell on mage armor (refered to as an extended mage armor), he must prepare it as a 2nd level spell (normally a 1st level spell, +1 level for the metamagic). A sorcerer would also use a 2nd level spell slot, but instead of preparing it ahead of time, he cast it as a full-round action.
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I think you understand the premise.
A wizard or cleric must apply metameagic ahead of time. A sorcer or oracle applies them at the time of casting. If the wizard wants to use Extend spell on mage armor (refered to as an extended mage armor), he must prepare it as a 2nd level spell (normally a 1st level spell, +1 level for the metamagic). A sorcerer would also use a 2nd level spell slot, but instead of preparing it ahead of time, he cast it as a full-round action.
... and in either case, the spellcaster must have the appropriate feat.
The metamagic rod allows you to use a metamagic feat without actually having it (in the same way that a ring of invisibility allows you to turn invisible without having the spell). You can only do it a limited number of times per day, and you can only do certain spell levels, but that still provides much-needed flexibility for when you find you need, for example, to cast an ectoplasmic fireball -- you just pul the rod out of your backpack and you're good to waste that pack of wraiths.
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Of course, if you do not like the idea of having to plan every single time you use a metamagiced spell, you could get the Preferred Spellfeat.
It lets you pick a spell, and then you can cast that spell spontaneously just like a cleric does with cures (by sacrificing an appropriately leveled spell slot or prepared spell). The feat lets you add metamagics to the spell (you have to sacrifice higher level spell slots though).
Fireball is obviously a preferred spell for this, but there are plenty of other fine options.
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Think of spells like Verbs, and Metamagic like adverbs.
Take the spell sleep. How does he sleep? He sleeps deeply. Someone casted Extended Sleep on him to make him sleep for a long time.
To use metamagic, you must have the metamagic feat and a spellslot that the new spell can fit in. Prepared casters must choose ahead of time, while spontaneous casters choose at the moment but it increases the casting time.
Metamagic rods are an exception, they can be used by any mage even without the feat. They do not take extra time to cast. They do not use a higher level spell slot.
Instead they are limited to uses per day, and what level spell you can use them on.